The City of Ashland Citizen’s Budget Committee recently kicked off their schedule of meetings in preparations for completing a budget recommendation to City Council for the upcoming two-year budget cycle that starts on July 1, 2019. The Budget Committee was presented with the proposed biennial budget on April 17, 2019 which also included a Staff proposal focused on re-stabilizing the City’s General Fund, which houses the revenues and expenses for the Community Development, Fire/Ambulance, Municipal Court, Police Departments.

The second Budget Committee meeting is scheduled for April 24, 2019 and will focus on the City’s Enterprise Funds, which includes the individual utilities that the City operates on behalf of the community.  Each utility (Electric, Water, Wastewater, Stormwater, Transportation and Ashland Fiber Network) has their own separate budgets with revenues and expenses that must legally remain separate from other City funds and operations.

The third Budget Committee meeting is scheduled for May 1,2019 and will be focused on reviewing the General Fund balancing proposal, responding to questions and assisting the Budget Committee in forming their recommendations to Council as well as for making their formal decision of setting the City’s property tax rate.

Two additional meeting dates, May 8 and May 15 have also been scheduled to address other elements of the proposed budget and reach final budget recommendations and the property tax decision.

Citizens’ Budget Committee meetings are scheduled on Wednesdays April 24, May 1, May 8, and May 15 at 6 p.m. in the Council Chambers, 1175 E. Main Street.  These meetings are also streamed live on local Channel 9, Charter Communications Channels 180 and 181, or by going online to rvtv.sou.edu and selecting RVTV Prime Channel.  An archive of these meetings can also be found on our website at www.ashland.or.us/citycouncilmeetings.

For more information on the budget process, schedule and the formal budget proposal, go to http://www.ashland.or.us/budgetprocess or select the Budget Process hot topic on the homepage.