Kenai City Manager Terry Eubank (left) and Kenai Controller Lana Metcalf (right) present budget information during a city council work session on Saturday, April 29, 2023, in Kenai, Alaska. (Ashlyn O’Hara/Peninsula Clarion)

Kenai City Manager Terry Eubank (left) and Kenai Controller Lana Metcalf (right) present budget information during a city council work session on Saturday, April 29, 2023, in Kenai, Alaska. (Ashlyn O’Hara/Peninsula Clarion)

Kenai adopts budget, staff recruitment strategies

The city expects there to be a general fund surplus of about $436,000 in fiscal year 2025

The Kenai City Council on Wednesday approved the city’s spending plan for the upcoming fiscal year, which includes a flat mill rate and sales tax, raises for city employees and projects $10 million in sales tax revenue.

In Kenai’s general fund, the city is projected to take in about $19 million and to spend about $19.5 million. Once roughly $925,000 in lapsed funds roll over from the current fiscal year, the city expects there to be a general fund surplus of about $436,000 in fiscal year 2025.

Of the $19 million expected to flow into the city’s general fund for the upcoming fiscal year, more than half — about $10 million — will come from sales tax. Another 22.7% will come from property taxes. Of the $19.5 million in planned expenditures for the same fund, about 46.5% will be put toward public safety and about 21.1% will go to government operations.

The city is projecting more than $317 million in taxable sales within the city in fiscal year 2024 — an increase of about $9.2 million from fiscal year 2023.

The city’s invests about $5.8 million in capital projects around the city. Capital projects generally refer to projects needing a one-time expenditure of more than $35,000 and that have a lifespan of more than one year. The city’s capital improvement plan groups projects by which of the city’s six funds would pay for them.

Kenai City Manager Terry Eubank wrote in a transmittal letter accompanying the budget document that a $5.8 million general fund investment in city capital projects is enough to pay for the first four years of the improvement plan. Among those projects are the rehabilitation of Lilac Street, the replacement of playground equipment in Old Town and replacement of pavilions at city parks.

A trove of new federal funding opportunities, Eubank said in the letter, has allowed the city to make new investments in those types of projects.

“During the preparation of this budget, we were fully cognizant of the need to ensure the long-term value of investments and the financial stability of our City,” Eubank wrote. “Over the last several years, a combination of Federal stimulus and tax revenue growth has put the City in a unique position to make overdue strategic investments in our aging infrastructure.”

Citing high inflation, the budget applies a 2% one-time bonus from the previous fiscal year to city employees’ base salary and then applies a 4% increase to employees’ base salary.

On the same night they adopted the city’s budget, Kenai City Council members also approved legislation changing the section of city code that addresses personnel. Those changes were proposed by a city working group that convened with the goal of boosting recruitment and retention.

Among other things, the new policy greenlights the use of recruitment incentives for positions that are hard to fill, gives some employees the option to work remotely for two weeks, adds a half-day holiday on either Christmas Eve or New Year’s Eve and postpones a planned increase to employees’ cost share for health insurance.

Multiple council members during Wednesday night’s council meeting thanked city staff for their work on the budget document.

“Thank you to staff for all the work you put into it,” said council member Alex Douthit. “We had some really good meetings. … Being my first budgeting work session, it was an interesting process to go through and very informative.”

A draft version of the city’s budget, which was amended in minor ways on Wednesday, can be accessed at kenai.city.

Reach reporter Ashlyn O’Hara at ashlyn.ohara@peninsulaclarion.com.

More in News

Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly Candidate Bill Elam waves signs on election day on Tuesday, Oct 3, 2023, in Soldotna, Alaska. (Ashlyn O’Hara/Peninsula Clarion)
Voters take to the polls during Tuesday municipal election

Poll workers report low turnout across the central peninsula

Some of the pumpkins submitted to the pumpkin-decorating contest are seen here during the 5th annual Kenai Fall Pumpkin Festival in Kenai, Alaska, on Oct. 10, 2020. (Photo by Brian Mazurek/Peninsula Clarion file)
Kenai’s Fall Pumpkin Fest set for Saturday

The fun actually starts early, as a central element of the festival is a pumpkin decorating contest already underway

Aurora Borealis Charter School Art and Music Teacher Eleanor Van Sickle leads students in a performance of "Autumn Canon," a Hungarian song at a meeting of the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District Board of Education meeting on Monday, Oct. 2, 2023 in Soldotna, Alaska. (Ashlyn O'Hara/Peninsula Clarion)
Student serenade

Aurora Borealis Charter School students sing at the assembly during the regular school board meeting on Monday

Bear 747, defending Fat Bear Week Champion, stands on the bank of the Brooks River in Katmai National Park, Alaska. The winner of a Thursday matchup between Bear 128 Grazer and Bear 151 Walker will meet 747 in Fat Bear Week competition on Saturday. (Photo courtesy C. Cravatta/National Park Service)
Survival of the fattest

Paunchy ursine competitors go head-to-head in annual Fat Bear Week

Soldotna Elementary School Principal Dr. Austin Stevenson walks amid natural gas pipes anchored to the outside of school on Friday, Sept. 30, 2022, in Soldotna, Alaska. (Ashlyn O’Hara/Peninsula Clarion)
High costs stall work on school bond

A cost estimate for the reconstruction of Soldotna Elementary School came back $13.5 million over budget

(City of Seward)
Police standoff closes Seward Highway

Police say standoff was with ‘barricaded individual,’ not escaped inmate

Mount Redoubt can be seen across Cook Inlet from North Kenai Beach on Thursday, July 2, 2022. (Photo by Erin Thompson/Peninsula Clarion)
Alaska not included in feds’ proposed 5-year oil and gas program

The plan includes a historically low number of proposed sales

A copy of "People, Paths, and Places: The Frontier History of Moose Pass, Alaska" stands in sunlight in Soldotna, Alaska, on Friday, Sept. 29, 2023. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)
Moose Pass to receive award for community historical effort

“People, Paths, and Places: The Frontier History of Moose Pass, Alaska” was a collaboration among community members

Most Read