Budget work wraps up this week
By Terry Murry on Tuesday, May 11th, 2021 in Columbia Basin News More Top Stories
PENDLETON – The Pendleton Budget committee wraps up its work on the new fiscal year’s budget this week. City Manager Robb Corbett is the budget writer, and he said frugality during the current year combined with federal stimulus money means the budget was easy to balance.
The city is due an estimated $3.4 million dollars in stimulus funds. Corbett said it’s estimated the city has $5 million in deferred maintenance for both facilities and systems, and he thinks the bulk of the federal funding should go there.
“I propose that of the $3.4 million, $2 million would be set aside to address the worst of the maintenance issues,” he said.
The remaining federal money would be earmarked for shoring up the declining general fund and helping area businesses with a plan by tourism partners to recoup some of the losses suffered by the cancellation of major events. Pendleton Comes Alive would feature smaller-scale events every weekend through the summer.
“They asked for $250,000 a year over two years,” he said. “What I’ve proposed is that we use $400,000. There will be other ways that we will get to the $500,000 that we’re pursuing.”
