By Eric Valentine
Summertime is more than vacations, staycations and pool parties as far as local city halls are concerned. The warm season is also when budget planning heats up, as workshops and public hearings fill city council agendas to ultimately create a spending plan they can stick to during the next fiscal year that starts in the fall.
The Weekly Sun has put together a general rundown of each Valley city’s budget-making schedule and we chat with the mayors of the cities about next year’s biggest budget challenges. We start north, with Ketchum and Sun Valley.
Ketchum
Thursday’s the big day in Ketchum. It’s when the proposed budget will be released to the public in time for a July 1 public hearing, where city leaders will present and discuss the spending plan they’ve been laboring over this spring.
That labor was due in large part to what has been described as a $700,000 budget “shortfall” for the city.
“It’s not really a shortfall,” Ketchum Mayor Neil Bradshaw said.
Bradshaw explained that department heads put together a wish list—or needs list—before taking revenue into account. Once those lists are added up, all of it is compared against projected revenue. Factoring in—among other line items—the state maximum 3 percent increase in property taxes and the decrease in revenue from losing the rural fire district contract, the city had to find a way to reduce the wish list by roughly $700,000.
“I don’t believe in across-the-board cuts. I prefer a scalpel,” Bradshaw said.
The upcoming budget sessions will be held at Ketchum City Hall, starting at 4 p.m. The dates are:
July 1—Budget presentation and discussion
July 15—First reading
August 5—Second reading
August 19—Third reading and adoption
The public is encouraged to attend and comment at each of the sessions.
Sun Valley
Challenges are no less in Sun Valley even though the overall size of the budget may be (roughly $10.5 million for Ketchum and $10 million for Sun Valley). Mayor Peter Hendricks said his city’s biggest challenge is planning ahead, not simply for next fiscal year, but for fiscal year 2025, too.
For instance, Hendrick noted, snowplows will need to be replaced in about five years, an estimated $400,000 expense. If this year’s budget doesn’t take that into account, the math in future years becomes more dicey.
“You don’t want to be in a situation where all of a sudden you have a bill staring you in the face down the road,” Hendricks said.
Hendricks noted that Sun Valley’s budget has the benefit of a major bond that passed two years ago allowing for the funding of a number of street and pathway improvements. He encourages the public to take part in the upcoming budget sessions which are held at Sun Valley City Hall:
July 1, 1 p.m.—Budget presentation by Finance Committee
July 8–9, 9 a.m.—Special council meetings
August 1, 4 p.m.—Regular council meeting
August 6 & 12, 4 p.m.—Special council meeting
