City hopes of passing budgets for 2021-22
By Paul Hall on Wednesday, June 2nd, 2021 in More Top Stories Northeastern Oregon News
LA GRANDE – The City of La Grande will meet tonight (Wednesday) to vote on budgets for 2021-22 for the Urban Renewal Agency and the City Council respectively.
The Agency or the City Council may make changes to the budgets at that time, however, taxes may not be increased beyond the amount approved by the Budget Committee, nor may approved expenditures in any fund be increased by more than $5,000 or 10 percent, whichever is greater, unless additional actions are taken, including publication of revised budget figures and an additional public hearing.
(Details of the budget meeting)
The City of La Grande Budget Committees for Urban Renewal and the City of La Grande met May 10th and 11th to review and approved the Proposed Budgets for the 2021-22 fiscal year. The meetings were held virtually due to the restrictions in place during the COVID-19 pandemic. The public was able to watch the meeting live and could provide written comments in advance, which were read into the record during the meeting.
The Urban Renewal Budget was approved as presented, and includes $1,050,000 for capital project programs. Of this amount, $525,000 is new funding for existing programs including the Façade Grants, $75,000; non-Business Park Call for Projects, $350,000; and $100,000 for Agency identified, pro-actively targeted improvement project in the Central Business Zone.
The Urban Renewal and City General Fund budgets reflects an Urban Renewal under levy which will provide an estimated $205,022 of additional revenues to the City without eliminating core economic development programs.
The City of La Grande’s General Fund Proposed Budget was approved as amended, with the changes being an increase of $5,000 in funding for the Blue Mountain Humane Association (BMHA), bringing the City’s total contribution to $14,500. BMHA had sent a letter to all the cities asking for funding, which was read during the public comments portion of the hearing. Also read were 13 letters of support for the Cook Memorial Library’s budget. The Library’s proposal included adding two part-time staff to reopen on Saturdays. The only other staffing increase was a new clerk/receptionist position at the Police Department. The Fire Department’s request includes replacing a 12-year old ambulance with over 200,000 miles.
The City’s approved FY 2021-22 General Fund budget has $13,799,655 of estimated expenditures. The budget also includes $2 million in anticipated Federal funding related to the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. Estimates are La Grande will receive $2.7 million over two years with the specific uses to be determined by the City Council once the Federal requirements are finalized.
The City’s Enterprise Fund and Other Budgets were also approved as presented. These include Water, Sewer, Streets and Roads, and Building Inspections. The City is not considering any increases in Water or Sewer rates again this year.
