Casper City Council FY27 Budget Work Session - May 26, 2026
Casper City Council FY27 Budget Work Session - May 26, 2026
The Casper City Council held a budget work session on May 26, 2026, to review the proposed FY27 budget. City Manager Janine presented the $196.4 million budget, covering all funds, with a 4.5% increase in operating expenses over FY26. The presentation emphasized financial stewardship, revenue uncertainties (expiring 6th penny sales tax, pending 5th penny renewal, property tax reductions), and alignment with council priorities and resident survey data.
Discussion Items
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Budget Overview: Total proposed budget $196.4M, including $33.3M in new capital. Operating budget change of 4.5% from FY26. Key change drivers: US Western region CPI up 3.5% (energy prices up 16.6%). Personnel expenses are 35% of all funds ($68M). Debt service is low. Sales tax revenue projected at $50.9M, with the 6th penny expiring June 30, 2026, and the 5th penny collected through December 31, 2026, pending voter renewal in November. Property tax revenue dropped 21% from FY25 due to legislative changes; an additional $1.2M drop is possible if the 50% residential exemption ballot initiative passes. A 70% reduction proposal is also circulating. A statistically valid resident survey (conducted by ETC) showed residents would allocate $100 of 1-cent sales tax as: $33 for streets/drainage, $22 for public safety, $19 for parks/recreation, $14 for facilities/cybersecurity/technology, and $11 for community/transit. City Manager noted the budget aligns with these priorities.
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General Fund: Proposed revenue $58.9M, with 67% of expenses on personnel. Materials and supplies up 17%, driven by inflation and new initiatives: street patching projects (Kaufman $40K, Forest $70K, 21st St $86K) and fire department safety supplies ($164K for light bunkers to reduce cancer risk, $74K for gas monitors). The fire department's light bunkers are a one-time purchase for workforce wellness. Counselor Sweeney asked about flat police training budget; Police Chief explained the department is nearly fully staffed (104 of 110 authorized) and wants to reach full staffing before requesting more positions.
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Enterprise Funds: Water fund: projected beginning cash $16.8M, operating revenue $17.8M, total expenses $22.5M, using $1.7M cash, ending with $8.3M. Sewer fund: similar, with $836K cash use, ending $2.02M. Wastewater fund: expenses below revenue, ending $3.7M. Refuse fund: needs adjustment, ending $345K. Landfill: ending $3.2M. Pro forma projections show water and sewer reserves adequate but future rate adjustments needed. Council discussed that the water fund is now in better long-term shape due to recent rate adjustments, but sewer rates may need increases to avoid dipping below reserve targets in 2028-2029.
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Capital Investments: $27M allocated to public works, streets, water/sewer/stormwater. Street construction at $6.1M (up from $5.25M in FY26) but below inflation-adjusted target of $8.4M from 2019 study. Council Vice Mayor expressed desire to increase street funding; City Manager acknowledged and plans to bring more aggressive proposals next year. Status of projects: Metro (out to bid late August), Fire Station 1 (design at 35%, seeking grants, possible use of 5th penny overcollection), Washington Park (out to bid late summer/fall, completion by end of summer 2027). Capital funded primarily by 5th penny (40%) and utility customer charges (26%).
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Personnel: Seven new positions recommended out of 54 requested: budget manager, volunteer services coordinator, planner in community development, equipment operator in streets, technology support specialist for police, equipment operator at landfill, operator at wastewater plant. Compensation adjustments: police 1% market plus merit steps (3-5%), pension increase 1.8%; general employees 1.25% market plus 2.75% merit steps, pension increase 0.25%; firefighters variable 1-5% market per rank, 5% merit steps, no pension change. Police pension overcontribution (4.5%) continues. Counselor Sweeney questioned the need for a volunteer services coordinator; City Manager explained it would be a city-wide role to build volunteer programs, placed in the city manager's office for cross-departmental authority. The budget manager position is intended to improve public-facing budget communication.
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Recreational Subsidies: Cost recovery targets reviewed. Fort Casper at 20% target (actual 20%), golf course above 110% target (117%), Ice Arena and Rec Center below targets, Hogadon well below due to poor snow season (only 24 inches in 2026). Zulema and committee are reviewing business plans and may adjust targets. Council discussed inflation and weather impacts. Counselor Pollock asked about weed and pest fund reduction; staff explained fund is healthy with reduced capital needs due to recent equipment purchases.
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Future Considerations: 6th penny ends June 30, 2026. 5th penny renewal on November ballot; City Manager plans to bring a resolution to council in July/August specifying uses, informed by survey data. Property tax ballot initiative could reduce revenue further. Possible countywide 6th penny in 2028 discussed. City Manager also noted that large capital projects (e.g., CVC) may cause future budget gaps as interest income decreases. Priority-based budgeting is being integrated, with a public webpage planned.
Key Outcomes
- No formal votes on the budget; the work session was informational. The budget will be adopted at a later meeting.
- Council directed staff to update the pavement condition analysis for inflation and bring back more aggressive street funding proposals for the next fiscal year.
- City Manager will bring a resolution for 5th penny uses in July/August 2026, informed by resident survey results.
- Staff will continue to work on recreational subsidy business plans and present findings at a future meeting (June 2026).
- Council members were encouraged to meet individually with staff for detailed line-item questions.
- The meeting concluded with a motion to go into executive session for personnel matters (separate from budget discussion).
Meeting Transcript
So just a couple things as we kind of get started. I'm hoping that we won't have to come back tomorrow. I think in leadership, Colin and I had chatted with Janine. She had pretty put together a pretty um succinct overview of the budget. I would I would also urge as we kind of go through this, if there's any like personal curiosity and things like that on certain things to keep meeting moving to please maybe reach out to staff afterwards if you have any minute types of stuff. And I always use this example of time as in leadership. I was on the council several years ago where the council at the time was saying, what is this $20,000 for? We need to cut it. It got to that point. And so I would say that the council probably should be mindful of that. And so just wanting to kind of say this is kind of what we're looking at for the budget session here. Of course, questions should be obviously transparent and open. Um as much as you would like to just want to kind of bring that location by technical programs. All right, my work now. Yes, as you're gonna thank you. You got you. All right, so um tonight about this. And who is an expert in this area, not me. And um, I'm gonna hand it over to you. Thank you, Mayor. You give me too much credit, perhaps, but I guess I'll just take it out. Set me up. I will um council is good to have you here. And uh, I know that some council members didn't tend to really enjoy going through the budget, others less so. Um, so I will tell you I've prepared a presentation for tonight that um has tried to do a few things. First of all, to recognize that every not everybody wants to be in the weeds, so to speak, um, and and uh honoring the mayor's advice with respect to that. Um, I've also tried to really focus on what I call the 30,000 foot level, which is the level of policymakers and elected officials, um, and talk to you about how this budget aligns with your priorities with the community's priorities as we understand through your leadership and also through our survey data and things of that nature. And lastly, I want to acknowledge that we have many, many fine members of your staff here, um, notably all your department heads, and many of your leaders as well in divisions and whatnot. So, recognizing that it is my first time around this budget Earth, uh, I may lean on these folks to fill in gaps and help answer any questions that you have. So we'll start off. I wanted to share with you kind of the agenda for tonight and what we will talk about so that as you as we go through this, if you do have questions, um, and maybe you know we're in the general fund section, and you want to ask a question about water or wastewater, know that it is coming. We will we will be getting to it. And so this may help with the timing of inquiries and whatnot. Um, so we'll talk first just with a general overview at that 30,000 foot public policy level, and then we'll get a little bit into the general fund, the enterprise fund, and then we'll talk about our capital investments. I'll let you know I'm gonna be very light touch on the capital plan because we have had a previous work session with you where we've talked about that, and that budget has been in your hands now for uh many weeks. So I don't want to be beat that horse any further. Uh and then we will close out with our human capital investments for fiscal 27 and then end by talking a little bit about what's happening in 27 that will shape uh future uh fiscal years and the city's future. So we're gonna start out with looking at all funds just very easily and what I call at a glance. So when you look at the entirety of your city fiscal 27 proposed budget across every fund, this is what it looks like. 196.4 million dollars total, 33.3 million in what I call new capital. So those are a lot of those capital projects that we talked about a few weeks back that were new to you, literally. Um, and we may not even start some of those until the spring uh calendar year 2027. Um those were some of the new things you saw. When you look at your operating budget that excludes all of those capital projects, you'll see that uh there is a 4.5% change from fiscal 26 to fiscal 27. And I just noted at the bottom there some of the things that are what I call change drivers. Um when you look, it was one of my favorite parts about doing budget is kind of unpacking some of the local and regional economic factors that shape our business and every business. And what we've seen is in the US Western region, the consumer price index has flexed up by 3.5% in the last 12 months, ending in April. And also as a part of that 3.5%, the largest growth that we saw in pricing was for energy prices. So that includes your you know electricity and natural gas, but also fuels, gasoline, lubricants, those things, which this organization is a consumer of all of those categories and a large consumer of fuels, as you can imagine for our heavy equipment and our plant operations. Of all of your funds, 35% of those are personnel expenses.
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