Speaker numbers apply only to this recording. Names come from transcript evidence. “Possibly” marks uncertain attribution.
The Twin Falls City Council met on July 20, 2026, at 5:00 PM at 203 Main Ave E. The meeting included unanimous approval of the consent calendar and a hazardous materials vehicle purchase, a detailed presentation of the FY 2026-2027 recommended budget focusing on Focus Areas 4, 5, and 6, and public comments regarding ICE flights at the airport and other topics. The meeting adjourned to executive session at 6:34 PM to discuss acquiring real property, ending at 6:58 PM. Council Member Grayson Stone was absent.
We want to follow our strategic plan. We want to, as an organization, be an employer of choice. We did take the 3% statutory allowed increase. We have taken the increase assigned to a new construction value, and we're taking the city's 1% foregone balance. This will be the last year that we can take the full 1% foregone balance. After this, there isn't 1% left anymore. So next year, we do this again. We'll take all that's left and it will be less than 1%, and then it will be gone after that for years to come, unless we create a new foregone in future budgets by not taking the 3% statutory allowance. And then we also wanted to minimize our utility rate increases. So with these goals in mind, we created the budget that you're looking at tonight. Um this is kind of a big picture of the organization or sorry, the community value. Um you'll see here that our taxable value has grown by you know almost 360 million dollars. Um that's that's a pretty good growth, right? In taxable value. Um I talked a little bit about the bottom of the slide already with the increases. This one does show a 2.84% decrease. Again, that decision is dependent on or that amount is dependent on decisions that we make as we go through this negotiation process in the coming months. We won't do that until after this budget is adopted. So again, this this budget adoption shows the flat on the sanitation rate. Um this bar graph shows us how our valuation of the taxable value has grown over the last several years. Um you can see that we're as high as we've ever been. Uh a modest increase, a little bit better increase this past year than in prior years. Back in 23, we had a big old jump. Um there was a uh closing of an urban renewal area back at that point, which does a lot for us. Uh, in fact, uh the taxable value of the city does not include the taxable value of the urban renewal areas that we have. And if you add the two together, we're at 7.5 billion in value in our community. Um 6.4 or 6.8 billion of that is is reflected in the city's valuation table. Uh that bar graph is showing you the trajectory of our uh tax rate over the last several years. Um, you see, we're fairly consistent for the last four years. Uh at $5.05, we're gonna round that up to $5 and $5. Um, but we're still pretty pretty affordable tax rate that we're gonna go off of. Obviously, you're gonna apply your tax rate to whatever your new assessed value is each year, and so individuals might not see an actual decrease. Some might, not everyone will. Um, but this is a pretty good rate, and it's a slight decrease from last year, and pretty consistent with the years or the last four or five years. Um, okay, so let's talk about some big picture stuff. This pie graph is talking is showing the value or or the percentage of um total budget by fund type. Uh so you'll see the government funds is 63% of the value of the budget. The government funds are your typical kind of what you would generally perceive as government duties like fire, police, parks and rec, whatever we do here in City Hall, that's your typical government funds. The enterprise funds are 32% of the budget.