EDMOND The Edmond City Council approved a $676 million budget for fiscal year 2025 Monday night that includes funding for 54 new employee positions, half of them in the fire and police departments.
“Largely it’s a function of the growing city,” City Manager Scot Rigby said earlier Monday. “Several are coming in our development services and that’s largely because of our growth. We are short-staffed.”
Despite the new staff positions, the FY25 budget is $73 million less than the current budget.
“We’re facing a tightening budget situation for the city,” Rigby said. “This past year that will end June 30, we projected 2% growth in our sales and use tax. We’re going to finish probably about .25% in sales tax growth, so that’s concerning.”
The challenge is costs continue to increase, he said.
FY25 total revenue is projected to be $349.4 million, with 62% coming from charges for utilities and other city services ($216 million) and 33% from taxes ($113 million).
“Taxes are what we run most of our general fund on,” Finance Director Kathy Panas said. “We’ve budgeted at a .5% growth rate. It’s just pretty flat from what we’ve had in the last year.”
Of the projected $113 million in tax revenue, $70.7 million will go to the general fund, $32.5 million to the capital projects fund and $9.8 million to the special project fund.
The fire department budget includes nearly $4.8 million more for personnel services in FY25, which begins July 1, due to the addition of 16 firefighters and one civilian position.
The new positions are needed to staff a sixth fire station under construction in the north part of the city along Kelly Avenue south of Sorghum Mill Road. Scheduled to open in the first quarter of 2025, it is the first station to be added in Edmond since Fire Station No. 5 opened in 2005.
Overall, the fire department budget is $36 million, $10 million less than for the current fiscal year because of fewer dollars for capital outlay.
The police department budget is $40.4 million, an increase of nearly $2.7 million from FY24. The department is adding five sworn officers and three civilian positions.
The fire and police departments are funded through dedicated public safety sales tax revenue. Most of the other new positions are also funded by dedicated funds and fees, with the general fund only covering 4.5 new positions.
The city’s direct costs are estimated to be $453.5, with utility services costing $155 million (35%), general government/central services costing $94.6 million (21%) and public safety costing nearly $80 million (18%). Debt service and parks and recreation each represent 9% of direct costs, while streets and highways are 6%.
The council also voted to increase monthly stormwater drainage system fees. The charge for residential properties will go from $3 to $6 in 2025 and $9 in 2026; the charge for duplexes and multifamily developments will go from $1.50 per unit to $3 in 2025 and $4.50 in 2026; the charge for all other property will go from $3 to $6 in 2025 and $9 in 2026.
Edmond’s stormwater drainage system service charge has not increased since April 2007 while construction prices in the region have more than doubled during that period. There is a growing backlog of deferred stormwater system maintenance projects and unmet community needs, Rigby said.
“We are way, way, way low compared to our peer cities,” he said. “By increasing that drainage fee we’ll be able to address some of those drainage challenges in the coming years.”
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