It’s budget time

By Terry Murry on Wednesday, April 27th, 2022 in Columbia Basin News More Top Stories

PENDLETON & HERMISTON – The Pendleton Budget Committee meets for the second time this week Thursday at 7 a.m. The first meeting was held Tuesday when City Manager Robb Corbett presented the budget for the coming fiscal year which begins July 1.

The meeting is in the Vert Club Room and the public is welcome to attend. The budget presentation can be found as an attachment to the agenda for the first meeting at https://cityofpendletonor.civicweb.net/Portal/MeetingInformation.aspx?Org=Cal&Id=1554. The meeting can also be joined via Zoom. The ID and pass code are also posted on the link that’s provided.

The first meeting of the Hermiston Budget Committee is at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, May 5. Assistant City Manager Mark Morgan says unpredictable inflation rates mean the city is taking no risks in its spending plan for the fiscal year that begins July 1.

“We’re looking at this upcoming budget as a hold-steady type of a budget,” Morgan said. “It’s been a couple of years now that there’s been a lot of unknowns with everything going on with COVID.”

Morgan said inflation is this year’s unknown.

“The city is obviously not immune to inflation,” he said. “We have to look at what that means for all the various lines of service that we do. The city’s overall budget is in the range of around $60 million.”

Morgan said it normally takes only one budget committee meeting to go through the budget and accept it, but more meetings can be scheduled if necessary. The meeting is at the Eastern Oregon Trade and Event Center.