Kalispell City Council digs into budget numbers

Budget talks continue Monday for Kalispell City Council at a work session.

The city’s preliminary budget for fiscal year 2023 is just over $111 million as compared with the last fiscal year’s budget of $104 million.

The city starts its review of the budget for the upcoming fiscal year in May, but it won’t adopt the final budget until property valuations come in from the state in August.

Specifically, on Monday, Council will review the budgets for four areas, the police department, fire and emergency medical services, parks and recreation and information technology.

This is Council’s third work session on the budget. The meeting starts at 7 p.m. at City Hall, 201 First Avenue East.

The budget looks to manage inflationary pressures by dipping into reserve funds but also calls for an overall increase in spending. The proposed budget calls for reserves in the general fund ending balance to be 19.8% rather than the 20% outlined in city policy.

The general fund is expected to be $14.1 million, which is about $550,000 less than last year’s budget primarily because the general fund budget doesn’t include as many capital expenditures as the last year.

However, the budget as a whole isn’t without capital expenditures.

City Manager Doug Russell notes that these items were anticipated during last year’s budget process where over $500,000 was set aside to aid in funding upcoming purchases. The purchases will aid in providing service, he points out.

Capital expenditures in the budget include the replacement of an ambulance at $290,000 and the replacement of a fire engine at $760,000.

Additions in the budget geared toward dealing with increased demands include personnel increases. The preliminary budget contemplates adding nearly five full-time city positions, and moving one part-time position to full-time to deal with records management.

Russell said the spending plan in the preliminary budget provides Kalispell with a foundation to withstand the challenges of the current economy and labor market yet continues to provide for the expected service levels of the community. The budget is presented with the intention of mitigating further challenges in the next three to five years as the city is projecting expenditures exceeding revenues for the short term, he notes.

“This gap, while handled this year with limiting personnel in our general fund operations, is something to watch over the next 12 months as the higher the inflation rate, the more challenging it becomes to keep up with services, fully recognizing that inflation impacts the community as well, not just the municipality,” he said in his memo to Council.

For more information, visit the city’s website at https://www.kalispell.com.

Features Editor Heidi Desch may be reached at 758-4421 or hdesch@dailyinterlake.com.