Jacob Dimond / jake@yelmonline.com
During a Yelm City Council meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 22, City of Yelm Finance Director Stephanie Nanavich led a presentation to the council, which provided an early look ahead at the preliminary 2027-28 City of Yelm biennial budget.
Nanavich noted the preliminary budget presentation would give the council an early look at the major funds featured in the next biennial budget to be adopted.
“When we talk about major funds, we talk about those funds that would have a significant impact on the financial position of the city,” Nanavich said. “We’re talking about the general fund, the water fund, the sewer fund, the stormwater fund and our two ER&R funds. Those are what we consider major funds.”
As the City of Yelm works through the budget process, Nanavich said there will be a discussion about the city’s capital funds and proposed capital projects later this month.
Nanavich highlighted some of the city’s budget goals, which included safer neighborhoods, safer and more cost effective infrastructure, a strong economy, clean and vibrant public spaces and the best run government.
Budget policies included maintaining a balanced budget for ongoing city-funded programs and maintaining the general fund ending balance at a minimum of 15% annual expenditures.
“As we’ve talked about many times, this is a team effort — the whole budget process,” Nanavich said. “I collect information from all the departments. I collect information from our annual retreat. The mayor (Joe DePinto) and I, and Todd (Stancil), we all have discussions. Everybody is putting in information for this. I am collecting the information and transcribing it into numbers and documents, and that sort of thing.”
She noted that in the preliminary phase, the biennial budget won’t be public facing yet as the capital phase hasn’t yet been concluded. The budget itself will be visible to the public in the future, Nanavich claimed.
She noted in 2025, the City of Yelm had quite a bit of revenue that “exceeded expectations,” including different one-time revenues in the permitting area.
“We had a lot of cost savings in 2025, so we did have a more inflated fund balance at the end of 2025,” Nanavich said. “We’re going back down to normal levels as we work through 2026, 27 and 28.”
The City of Yelm projects itself to conclude with an ending fund balance of $4,114,860.37 in 2026. It also predicts an ending fund balance in 2027 at $3,969,173.07, and in 2028 at $3,128,481.01.
“This biennial budget is proposing some new positions that will be funded through the general fund,” Nanavich said. “Not a lot of capital outlays planned in the general fund in the next biennium. Most of it is coming from the police department. Bodycams is one of our big expenditures coming up.”
Revenue fund projections were also presented by Nanavich, and the City of Yelm is projected to collect $10.7 million in revenue during fiscal year 2027. Nearly $9 million of the city’s revenue stems from tax collection.
The City of Yelm is also projected to end fiscal year 2028 with a collection of $10.9 million in revenue. A total of $9.177 million is projected to stem from tax collection.
“The biggest source of revenue coming into the general fund is a variety of different taxes, followed by charges and goods for services, licenses and permits, intergovernmental revenues — they fluctuate,” Nanavich said. “We do have some state share revenues that are pretty similar year to year. Those are mostly based on population.”
Expenditures by year were also highlighted during Nanavich’s presentation, and the City of Yelm is projected to spend $11.4 million in fiscal year 2027. The majority of the city’s spending will be on public safety — with a projection of $5.12 million to be spent — and general government, which has a projection of $3.15 million to be spent.
In fiscal year 2028, the City of Yelm is projected to spend $11.7 million, including $5.23 million on public safety and $3.2 million on general government.
“By far, our biggest department in the general fund is public safety. That is a core service that the city provides, and it’s very important to all of us,” Nanavich said. “It makes sense that’s the majority of the general fund. When you look at general government, that’s the category of finance, legal. We’re all considered human resources. We’re all considered general government services. We service everybody citywide.”
Nanavich noted there will be discussions about the capital budget during meetings on Tuesday, Oct. 6, and Tuesday, Oct. 13, along with department presentations and the first of two public hearings for property taxes and the proposed biennial budget.
