The Seward City Council on Monday unanimously approved the city’s budget for the next two years. The move comes after a series of public hearings where the council defeated a proposed increase to Seward’s bed tax, approved raises for city employees, added full-time staff to Seward Fire Department and OK’d a new agreement with the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Kenai Peninsula.
Seward City Manager Kat Sorensen told the council on Monday that she had prepared a series of final amendments to accommodate the new fire staff approved by the council on Nov. 25. She previously also made adjustments to the budget to accommodate the staff raises after the council defeated the bed tax increase on Nov. 12.
The council unanimously accepted 10 amendments proposed by Sorensen that increased a pair of fund transfers, decreased funds allotted for services contracted by administration, and applied a swath of cuts to the funds for equipment, stipends, contracted services at Seward Fire Department to add roughly $400,000 in personnel costs for the two new positions.
The amendments also include an increased spend by Seward to wholly shoulder the Small Business Development Center, previously an expense shared with the Seward Chamber of Commerce.
A request by the chamber for increased funding was delayed until after a work session proposed for early next year.
The budget was approved by the council unanimously. It describes revenues of $42.7 and $43.1 million for the two years, against expenditures of $41.7 and $40.5 million. The city’s mill rate of 3.84 is proposed to remain the same, as is the city’s sales tax and bed tax. The budget also includes an average 8% increase in wages powered by a new wage scale for city employees. The budget is effective from Jan. 1, 2025, to Dec. 31, 2026.
A full recording of the meeting can be found at “City of Seward” on YouTube.
Reach reporter Jake Dye at jacob.dye@peninsulaclarion.com.
