Budget committee orients to calendar as staff flags $14/month city service fee and URA sunset

Philomath staff and new budget review committee members met for an orientation that reviewed the budget timeline, the urban renewal agency’s role and fiscal limits, and a proposed $14-per-month city service fee that would appear on utility bills to support police services and shore up the general fund.

Finance Director Mike Rosinski, who led most of the presentation, said the committee will follow a three-step review: a May 13 meeting to go “page by page” and collect questions, a second meeting that provides staff answers and deeper discussion, and a final meeting to approve the budget and the city and Urban Renewal Agency (URA) tax levies. “The first meeting, we take questions and comments. We don't debate. We don't discuss it, but we go through the whole budget,” Rosinski said.

A staff speaker explained the Philomath Urban Renewal Agency as a legally separate public entity whose governing body is the city council and that URA funds are restricted to urban revitalization projects such as streetscapes. Rosinski warned the committee that the URA is approaching its spending-authority sunset and that much of its $14,700,000 cap has already been spent; “once we hit that, we have to close it down, and all we do is pay off the debt,” he said.

On revenues and pressures, Rosinski noted the city receives few federal dollars and depends primarily on property taxes, which are constrained by the statutes originating with Measure 50. “We can't raise the rates any more than 3%,” he said, describing the mismatch between capped property tax growth and rising costs such as PERS and inflation. Rosinski also referenced an ongoing water treatment plant project with roughly $8,600,000 remaining in funding.

Staff told the committee the council has asked staff to include a $14-per-month “city service” fee in the draft budget to illustrate the effect on the general fund and police funding; the council has not approved the fee. Rosinski said the committee and the public will be able to review the proposal before any final decision. “We've included a $14 per month utility… city service fee. This is gonna fund the police, and it's gonna help us with our ending fund balance,” he said.

City Manager Chris Workman and other staff outlined how the budget ties to council priorities: the council’s strategic plan yields 10 priority objectives that staff translate into capital-improvement and operating requests. Workman urged committee members to use the public meetings and the city’s online materials to answer residents’ questions and said the city will promote the upcoming budget meetings and publish information about the proposed fee.

Staff encouraged the committee to note scrivener errors and minor typos in the budget book ahead of meetings to save time. Rosinski asked committee members to proof documents and to raise substantive questions at the May 13 meeting, when the URA will be reviewed first and the city budget discussion will begin at about 5:40 p.m.

The orientation concluded with staff reminding members of next steps: the May 13 full review and public outreach on the proposed fee; a public hearing on the use of state revenues was mentioned for the adoption process, and the committee adjourned at 7:01 p.m.

The committee did not take formal votes during the orientation; staff said any fee proposal and budget changes will follow the committee’s review and public hearings before final adoption by the governing bodies.