Update on North Bend Budget

I attended the budget committee meeting and council meeting yesterday. They declined the original proposal to increase City Administrator David Milliron's salary by $35k (to $179k). However last night they approved a 3.2% cost of living increase and a 5% merit increase, so he's at roughly $164k now, about $15k lower than the original proposed increase, but still $20k higher than last year's base salary of $144k.

I view this as a half win -- He still got a significant raise, but it shows that we can influence politicians without holding public office ourselves as long as we are willing to get involved and stand up for what we believe in. Ensuring government officials are responsibly spending our tax dollars has been and will continue to be a focus of mine regardless of the outcome of this month's election.

I will be attending Part 2 of the North Bend budget meetings tonight where they will be discussing a projected deficit. From the budget docs: "The forecast shows expenditures exceeding revenue starting in FY25 ($2.3MM deficit) and continuing every year through FY30." They have some reserves to cover the loss for the next couple years but will run out by FY28.

One option to stop the bleeding is to hold off on city wide market adjustments to salaries, which will be costing them $481k this next fiscal year. That logic is part of the reason they declined the full $35k increase to the city administrator's salary last night.

North Bend mentioned several possible levies that could be added to the November ballot for the following areas that they feel need more funding: sanitary/sewer, streets/roads, stormwater, public safety (separate from the county levy currently on the ballot).

Other noteworthy things: The NB City Administrator has a $750/month ($9k/yr) vehicle allowance, and the travel budget for his office has increased by $16k from $1k/yr in 2022 to $17k/yr this fiscal year. Median household income in North Bend is $67,841 per year, and almost half of households bring in less than $50k per year.