Copperton reviews draft FY2027 budget, staff urges conservative revenue assumptions

The Copperton Town Council spent the bulk of its March 18 meeting reviewing a draft fiscal year 2027 budget and asking staff to tighten revenue assumptions and correct line‑item placements.

Daniel Hoffman, introduced as the council’s senior accountant, told elected officials the packet included FY2025 actuals, FY2026 year‑to‑date figures and the FY2026 budget as the basis for FY2027 planning. "We're just trying to get to 95% tonight," Hoffman said, urging the council to treat the document as a working draft and expect later tweaks.

Council members questioned specific revenue lines. The chair raised the new SB136 sales‑tax estimate and asked whether the town should keep a $16,000 projection or lower it until more data exists. Hoffman recommended moving the interest‑income projection down, saying market yields are falling and some invested balances will be spent on capital projects; the chair proposed reducing the interest line from $12,000 to $10,000 to avoid planning on revenue that may not materialize.

Hoffman also noted that permit and license fee revenue is restricted by state law to covering the cost of providing permitting services. He said he would add a line in the budget that relates permit revenues to the expenses those permits fund, to keep the fee schedule revenue‑neutral.

On personnel costs, the council flagged what appeared to be an inconsistent wages figure. Hoffman said he had used actual payroll numbers annualized (times 12) and would rework formulas and move payroll processing fees to a separate line so wages and processing are reported clearly.

The council discussed technology costs, including the town web hosting, streaming (Zoom) subscriptions and hotspot service. Members agreed to pursue shifting to the MSD Zoom contract to reduce duplicative spending and to migrate town email from a .org address to the .gov address after archiving and forwarding older messages, which they estimated will reduce costs.

Next steps: staff will revise the draft to reflect the council’s guidance (lowered interest estimate, corrected wage and fee allocations, and updated permit fee accounting) and reissue the packet for review. Hoffman said there are still "three or four weeks" to make adjustments before the tentative budget is filed.

The council did not vote on the budget at the meeting; members instructed staff to return a revised draft for further consideration and public hearing as required by the budget process.