Avondale council debates FY27 budget trade-offs, audit cuts and event priorities

Avondale's finance director presented a draft fiscal 2027 budget that balances strategic priorities against looming revenue losses and rising costs, and the City Council spent much of the meeting parsing where to trim.

Renee Weatherless told the council the draft five-year forecast assumes no use of the 2% allowable property-tax increase for FY27 and anticipates a roughly $667,000 one-year general-fund impact from the San Tan Valley incorporation (and roughly $143,000 loss to HEERF funding). She also noted a possible state tax-conformity change that staff modeled as a potential $600,000 to $1.2 million recurring loss; the working forecast used an $880,000 figure.

Councillors pressed staff on major cost drivers. Health-care claims are rising: staff flagged roughly $4.3 million in next-year medical cost increases driven by inflation and several large claims. Renee summarized the payroll-side proposals included in the draft — steps, merit and a 3% cost-of-living adjustment — that together produce several million dollars in added salary pressure.

On the expenditure side, staff identified about $3.7 million in departmental reallocations, and a planned capital contingency that begins at $5 million and falls to $4 million in later years. To help balance the FY27 draft, departments proposed line-item savings and one-time shifts including holding two vacant positions and reducing some parks and events (staff recommended trimming multi-day festivals to a single day or eliminating lower-performing runs).

Council debated one high-profile cut: the draft pulled back $40,000 of requested external audit work (from $100,000 down to $60,000). Council Member White and others pushed back, arguing for sufficient external audit capacity to preserve transparency; others signaled the city can manage with the reduced amount while they look for alternatives.

Elected officials also discussed smaller but symbolic items: a proposed $25,000 NASCAR sponsorship was removed by consensus; council asked staff to continue a $10,000 Heritage Center sponsorship using tourism funds and to evaluate chamber membership levels (council discussed keeping a high-level chamber relationship but exploring customized benefits).

Council asked staff to return with a recommended budget in April and reminded members that tentative and final budget adoptions will occur in May and June. Staff said they will track the items council asked to reconsider and return with precise sources for any restorations.

Directives from the night included moving forward with a $1,000-per-member reduction in council discretionary accounts (consensus) and further work to identify which one-time programs council wants to restore and where the funding should come from.