Payson Town Council Special Meeting – May 28, 2025: FY2025-2026 Tentative Budget Discussion and Approval
Payson Town Council Special Meeting – May 28, 2025: FY2025-2026 Tentative Budget Discussion and Approval
The Payson Town Council held a special meeting on May 28, 2025, to discuss and take possible action on Resolution No. 3451, which sets the tentative budget and establishes the expenditure limitation for Fiscal Year 2025-2026. The meeting began at 3:04 p.m. and adjourned at approximately 3:51 p.m. Council approved the resolution by a 6-1 vote.
Discussion Items
- Budget Overview: Finance Director Dana Ohanesian presented the proposed tentative budget totaling $94,907,924, balanced across all funds. The general fund is projected at $44 million, water enterprise fund at $29.8 million, HERF (Highway and Emergency Road Fund) at $11.2 million, and other special revenue funds. Key revenues include $720,000 in property tax, $34 million in fund balance, and approximately $60 million in other revenues. 76% of general fund revenues come from taxes (state sales tax, shared income tax, TPT, gas tax).
- General Fund Changes: The general fund contingency line was reduced from $1 million to $500,000. No transfers to the capital improvement fund, HERF, or capital replacement fund were included. Departments were directed to maintain operational budgets at FY24-25 levels. A placeholder of $8.5 million in central services was added for possible capital projects or PRS payments.
- HERF Fund: Budgeted at $11.2 million, with $5.4 million in current fund balance used. Capital projects include $1 million for pavement preservation, $1.6 million for the Longhorn-McLean roundabout, $5 million for B-line bus route improvements, and $800,000 for Wilson Court road (affordable housing project). Revenues decreased by $10 million compared to FY24-25 due to no general fund transfer.
- Water Enterprise Fund: Budgeted at $29.8 million, using $17 million in fund balance. Significant capital projects include the Hillcrest water tank (construction expected to carry into FY26), automated meter reading project (with a $1.5 million WIFA grant), and $4.6 million in other capital expenditures. A new billing clerk position was added.
- Capital Projects Fund (401): Includes $1.5 million placeholder for event center improvements (based on May 6 work session consensus), $400,000 for a PATS project, and smaller rollovers for network upgrades and council chamber AV updates. Acting Town Manager Sheila DeSchaaf clarified that placeholders preserve the ability to spend if council approves later; they do not authorize expenditures.
- IT and Software Licensing Costs: Council discussed annual software licensing costs totaling approximately $1 million, including $700,000 for general government renewals and $239,000 for public safety.
- Capital Replacement Fund (402): Contains $1.3 million for a new public safety radio system, plus funding for a previously ordered fire truck (delivery expected December 2027).
- PFAS Settlement: A generous placeholder for potential PFOS/PFAS settlement money was placed in the general fund as unrestricted revenue. Council member Ferris questioned why it was not in the water fund, given potential water treatment needs; staff noted that general fund dollars can be used for water purposes but not vice versa.
- Council Comments: Council Member Dallin Haws urged cutting general fund expenditures and ensuring the 1% sales tax increase is applied to capital projects appropriately. Council Member Scott Nossek commended staff for their work. Council Member Brett Flaherty criticized the $94.9 million ceiling as too high given past criticism of budgets over $70 million, and he voted against the resolution.
Key Outcomes
- Motion and Vote: Council Member Dallin Haws moved to approve Resolution No. 3451, seconded by Council Member Scott Nossek. The motion carried 6-1, with Council Member Brett Flaherty voting no. Mayor Stephen Otto, Vice Mayor Suzy Tubbs, and Council Members Nossek, Ferris, Bell, and Haws voted yes.
- Next Steps: A work session is scheduled for June 3, 2025, to refine the tentative budget, with final adoption planned for June 25, 2025. Council may reduce the budget but cannot increase it beyond this tentative cap. The budget will be published as the "Expenditure Limitation and Tentative Budget" in the newspaper.
Meeting Transcript
Call this meeting of the common council, the town of Payson, special meeting. I call us to order. I'm sorry I forgot, but uh special meeting, May 28th, 2025. Uh roll call. Let the record reflect that all council members are present. Okay. Pledge of allegiance. Why is it justice for all the meeting is to discuss the physical year 2025-2026 proposed tentative budget? Uh discussion possible action regarding resolution number thirty-four fifty-one. Captured as follows. A resolution of the mayor and council of the town of Payson, Arizona, setting forth the tentative budget and establishing the expenditure limitation for the town of Payson for physical year 2025-2026. Dana, would you give your presentation, please? Thank you, Mayor, Council members. This is the uh 2025, 26 tentative budget, which establishes the expenditure limitations for the town for next fiscal year. Um currently the tender budget is currently balanced with a total of financial resources equaling expenditures of ninety-four seven uh ninety-four nine hundred and seven thousand nine hundred and twenty-four dollars. Uh this here shows how that is broken up. Um 59 million, basically sixty million dollars is revenues, uh 720,000 is property tax, and 34 million um is uh fund balance of all the various funds that are in the town budget, which equals again expenditures. Um there's been some comments before regarding how how we get to that last year. How do we get to 106? This year, how do we get to 94 million? This shows all the funds that are in the town's budget, and the total of all these funds is what comprises the uh annual budget, and most of these you'll recognize the general fund uh has a expenditure um amount this year, 44 million HERF. There's 11 million water fund, bed tax fund, airport, library, event center, capital projects fund, uh the contingency fund, and that should actually be 250, not 350. Um capital replacement and gifts and grants, and then there's a few other funds here that have special uses for them, uh not as well known as the other ones, they're minor funds, wild land and urban fund, the park and rec improvement fund, uh, the police department of justice fund, and then the two magistrate court funds. Can I ask a quick question? Sure. Umriosity question. Why do we include the water fund? And since it's a separate fund. Um it is a separate fund, it's an enterprise fund, but it counts toward the town's uh total budget for the year. Yeah, but we can't we can't draw off of it. Um no, and we can't draw off some of these other ones either. Like the magic magistrate, those are for court costs and things like that. Um it's a it's an enterprise fund. Some of these other ones are special revenue funds, and they have restricted revenues, but they all count toward the town's total um fiscal fiscal expenditure limitation for the year. The special revenue fund, what what makes that up now? What what do you um it's a collection of funds? Actually, the uh the bed tax and the HERF fund are all special revenue funds, the airport fund is a special revenue fund. Those are funds where they have specific revenues that are restricted to a particular operation, like HERF monies can only be used for her street stuff. The bed tax is restricted to the uh tourism um and bed tax uses. Okay, I would the other thing I wanted to ask that 106,000 total of all funds. Wouldn't all that be in our LGIP account? Um no, not necessarily because we don't have during the year we're gonna collect revenues, and right now the LGIP just has what our cash balance is. All of these funds are gonna collect money during the revenue during the year, okay. And then a lot of that money is going to be spent current status. Yes. And so a lot of this money that the revenues that these these funds collect is going to be spent. The stuff that isn't spent ends up in the LGIP. Okay. And so looking at the general fund, the general fund um it's its expenditure limit is 44 million dollars. And that's the number that you'll see on this on the state schedules, the budget schedules.
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