Pierce County city to approve $122M biennial budget, tax increase for public safety
The city of University Place is expected to approve a biennial budget totaling $121.8 million after a final public hearing Monday.
City manager Steve Sugg described the proposed 2025-2026 budget as “a status quo budget” that is “balanced and conservative.”
“This budget recognizes that we are experiencing a slowing economy, and that high inflation has significant effects on the expenses of the City and its residents,” he wrote in a letter to citizens, the mayor and council in September. “As a result, the budget reflects the continuation of the City’s policy of careful, conservative revenue and expenditure assumptions, with a particular focus on the long-term financial health of the City and maintenance of existing service levels to residents.”
University Place is proposing to spend $45.9 million in 2025 and $75.8 million in 2026, according to city documents. The operating budget, which includes expenditures on staff salaries, community events, administrative services, parks, public works and public safety, makes up $38 million of the proposed spending for 2025 and $66 million of the proposed spending in 2026.
The city approved $183.6 million in the revised 2023-2024 budget, said University Place finance director Leslie Blaisdell. The operating budget was $49.7 million in 2023 and $53.3 million in 2024, she said.
Assistant city manager Eric Faison told The News Tribune on Thursday the city plans to pay off $17.1 million of debt in the next biennium, which the city issued decades ago to build out Town Center and the library, in addition to various streets, sidewalks, street lights and park projects.
Faison said it’s hard to compare the budgets of past years to each other because some project expenses roll over year-to-year. Sometimes projects are budgeted for a certain year and built in another year, which also can change reported revenues and expenditures. Most projects are funded by grants, which are included in the budget, Blaisdell said.
Residents shouldn’t expect to see a big increase in what they’re paying in taxes for the next two years, Faison said.
What’s in the budget?
This biennial the city is proposing to spend 12% of its budget on police and public safety, 9% on public works and engineering, 14% on debt repayment, 7% on capital improvement projects, 23% on reserves and ending fund balances, 18% on interfund transfers and 4% on community and economic development, among other expenditures, according to the proposed budget.
The budget includes funding for scheduled fleet replacements, salt and de-icer storage structures, sidewalk repairs and aging infrastructure repairs, in addition to funding for succession planning in anticipation of staff retirements, Sugg said in his letter.
Among the proposed improvements in 2025 are replacing and upgrading an existing spray pad at Market Square, adding bike lanes and sidewalks to various parts of the city and constructing a new roundabout at the intersection of Chambers Creek Road and 64th Street, according to a city capital improvement projects memo.
Taxes, including property taxes, sales taxes and utility taxes, are expected to make up 25.86% of the budget’s funding sources in the next two years, according to the proposed 2025-2026 budget packet. Existing fund balances are expected to make up 32.9% of funding, in addition to 11.29% of charges for services, 16.74% for interfund transfers and 4.9% of licenses and permits.
Property tax increases to support public safety
Per state law, property tax increases are limited to 1% each year. University Place is proposing to approve a 1% increase in property taxes in both 2025 and 2026, according to budget documents.
Since the City Council approved Resolution 654 in 2010, 100% of the city’s property-tax revenue is directed to public safety expenses, including police, jails, prosecution, public defenders, emergency management and legal services, according to the proposed 2025-2026 budget packet.
In 2023 voters approved an increase of the property tax levy from $0.66 per $1,000 of assessed value to $1.01 per $1,000. That additional revenue allowed the city to maintain its existing public safety services and add eight police officers to the University Place Police Department, in addition to a civilian Community Outreach Officer, according to the budget packet.
This story was originally published November 15, 2024 at 5:15 AM.
