The city of Eugene’s proposed budget for the 2007 Fiscal Year is balanced and stable, according to City Manager Dennis Taylor’s presentation to the Budget Committee on Monday.
The committee will review and make suggestions to the budget during its work sessions in April and May and refer it to the Eugene City Council by June. The council will review and decide whether to adopt the budget. Community Relations Director Jan Bohman said if the council adopts the new budget it will go into effect July 1.
The $439.6 million total budget includes the cost of running city government. The remaining $369.3 million, the net budget, is used to maintain current service levels while providing limited budget increases to certain services, including staffing for fire and satellite police stations, funding for mental health programs, staffing increases for library and recreation services and promotion of Eugene’s arts and outdoors, including the Olympic Track and Field trials.
The 2007 Fiscal Year net budget increased 2.2 percent from $361.5 million in Fiscal Year 2006. According to budget documents, a slowdown in the growth of operating expenses and in personal services costs, namely for the Oregon Public Employees Retirement System savings, are the primary reasons for the increases in the net budget.
Budget Manager Kitty Murdoch said the court rulings in favor of Eugene that resolved the problems with the PERS rate, which had miscalculated retirement benefits, has resulted in ongoing savings of$5 million per year across all funds. She said she was hoping that the city’s revenue would stabilize because in previous years the city had either low growth or reductions in the general fund.
Taylor said the proposed budget addressed several changes, but work was still needed in finding a solution to the road maintenance backlog, estimated to be growing at $6 million a year, and continuing library and youth and school services, which rely on bond levies.
Despite the proposed stability of the budget, Murdoch said the general fund has a continuing deficit that is expected to stabilize by the 2012 Fiscal Year. She said the available reserves for revenue shortfall are enough to cover the shortfalls in the budget.
A copy of the proposed budget is available at www.eugene-or.gov/budget.

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