Bend officials weighing proposed $873 million budget

(Update: Adding current budget figure, 16 pct. increase)

The city of Bend on Tuesday held the first of two meetings delving into the city’s proposed $873 million budget for the next two years.

The budget committee, made up of the seven city councilors and seven appointed citizens, began their meetings with city staff to review the details of the proposed budget, which is greatly influenced by the council’s goals set over the past few months.

Those goals fall into four general categories: economic vitality, including housing, jobs, and managing growth; transportation and infrastructure, public health and safety, and city services.

Mayor Sally Russell said those four broad items are important elements in planning for the future and weighing projects and programs.

“The list is really long, and they’re really important to keep our community the Bend that we really count on, that we moved here for, and that everyone is counting on us to keep functioning in a really good way,” Russell said.

The city’s proposed new budget is about 16 percent larger than the current 2017-19 biennial budget of $754 million.

The city’s chief financial officer, Sharon Wojda, said the budget is aimed to help solve big issues associated with the growth the city’s seeing.

“One of the big investments that is reflected in this budget is an increased spending in transportation,” Wojda said. “There’s about $74 million in transportation improvements planned for the next five years. And then we also have about $145 million in sewer infrastructure investments, again over the next five years which will really help growth development, and then on the transportation side, really improving transportation.”

The current chairman of the city’s budget committee is Peter Skrbek, who is also the chief financial officer of Deschutes Brewery. He said this process of bringing together the council and citizens is vital in creating the city budget.

“This is a very easy process to get involved in, in terms of any member of the public can come and listen, and really learn, and really understand how are their property tax dollars deployed,” Skrbek said. “How are the fees they’re playing for utilities, how are those deployed. And it’s very transparent. The city does an excellent job of preparing a budget, that I think is easy for any community member to understand.”

Skrbek also said the councilors for the most part seems to be on the same page when it comes to the budget, which makes it easier to go over.

The budget review continues Wednesday evening, starting at 5 p.m. at the Bend Fire Department’s North Training Center on Jamison Road. For more information on the meeting click here.

The final budget will be brought to the council at its meeting on June 19, and once approved will go into effect on July 1.

The 620-page proposed budget can be reviewed here. More city financial reports are available here.