Yelm City Council unanimously approved amendments to the city’s mid-biennium budget for 2023-24 after Yelm Financial Director Stephanie Nanavich led a discussion on Nov. 28 to inform councilors of changes.
Nanavich said Yelm is required by RCW 35A.34.130 to do the mid-biennium budget adjustment no later than Dec. 31. She noted that adjustments would be made to both the 2023 budget as well as the 2024 budget since the city is in the middle of the biennium.
“Starting out with 2023 adjustments, in the general fund we did receive a small AWC loss-prevention grant. We’re putting the revenue of that grant and expenditure of that grant into the general fund,” Nanavich said. “I have to say this year, we’ve received a handful of small grants, and every time we receive those small grants, we want to add them to our budget.”
She added the city adjusted its expenditures to account for equipment rental funds and saw capital and leased expenditures that exceeded what staff thought was budgeted.
“We’re not asking for more money in this fund because it has adequate reserves, and those reserves are meant for these expenditures,” Nanavich added. “We just didn’t budget enough expenditures in that fund.”
The city adjusted budgets due to increases to salaries, benefits, supplies and services, as well, Nanavich said.
“When it comes to 2024, we estimated all of these numbers back at the end of 2022. Now that we’re midway through the biennium, we reviewed our numbers and we do have adjustments,” Nanavich said. “In the general fund, which is the large category, we have about $230,000 of adjustments to salaries, benefits, supplies and services. We found this year that, like everyone else in the economy, we have increased costs for supplies, fuel, electricity. So, we do need to adjust our budget in the general fund to account for those increases.”
Nanavich also recommended that $750,000 be transferred from the general fund to the municipal building fund to earmark a budget for a future municipal building.
“We don’t know what that would be, but we’re going to move that over there so it doesn’t get spent,” she said. “It’s setting up that savings, getting it out of the general fund so it doesn’t get spent away.”
The street fund received less in its motor vehicle fuel tax money entering its fund, which required another adjustment.
“They will require about 18,000 more dollars of general fund support. As you know, the general fund supports the street fund,” Nanavich said. “To make up for that lost revenue, we need to support them a little bit more, but we don’t have to make up that whole amount.”
Nanavich said the city is budgeting $75,000 for the equipment rental fund, with $50,000 going to purchase a police vehicle and another $25,000 to upgrade the vehicle. The city will also increase the water and sewer fund expenditures as a result of a $36,000 increase in insurance.
“In the general fund, we have a couple small rollovers. In 2023, we budgeted $7,000 as a match to get the art district going. They didn’t do that in 2023, so they’re just asking us to roll over that $7,000 to perhaps get that done in 2024,” Nanavich said. “Our own Line Roy has done a great job at recreation programming this year. She’s been able to bring in some sponsorships. She’s brought in some revenue. She’s just asking to take about $7,000 to use for programming in 2024.”
Nanavich added that multiple project carryovers will occur into 2024, including the municipal building fund, seven road and street construction projects, and water and sewer capital funds. She said the biggest project is the water reclamation facility and is hopeful the project will conclude in late 2024 to early 2025.
