Personnel and Finance Committee
The Personnel and Finance Committee voted to recommend the 2026 city budget and a proposed 4.05% property tax levy increase, but tied that recommendation to changes aimed at restoring cemetery flower funding and cutting the library levy increase. They also asked for more Room Tax support, signaling the budget still had unresolved pressure points headed into the Council’s final vote.
Committee members recommended the 2026 budgets and a proposed property tax levy with a 4.05% increase over 2025—then immediately rewrote pieces of the plan to free up money for cemetery perpetual-care flowers and to remove a planned library levy increase. That’s a sign the “balanced budget” still depended on value judgments about what gets protected and what gets cut.
In response to public concern about cemetery flowers, the committee shifted $2,000 in wages out of the General Fund and used the savings to support perpetual-care flowers. It’s a small dollar move, but it shows how resident pressure can force last-minute budget patching.
The committee asked for an additional $5,000 from the Room Tax Committee, effectively pushing part of the budget problem onto another pot of money that has its own rules and competing demands.
Residents raised concerns about reduced funding and the possible end of perpetual-care flowers at the cemetery.