The Riverton City Council approved the city’s fiscal year 2025 budget resolution this week after reviewing “some minor changes” that had been made since they last discussed the topic.
First, City Administrator Kyle Butterfield pointed out that the council directed staff to decrease the amount of money allocated to contracts for services this year.
Staff also adjusted “many of the electricity line items” in the budget to reflect a proposed 12 to 16 percent rate increase through Rocky Mountain Power, Butterfield said.
“(We) felt it was appropriate to increase the line items to appropriately cover this proposed increase,” he said. “This reflects about $20,000 of increased costs in the general fund, nearly $26,000 in the water fund, $22,000 in the wastewater fund, $700 in the sanitation fund and $5,000 in the airport (fund) to anticipate those changes.”
Finally, he said, some funding was carried forward into the fiscal year 2025 budget to accommodate a carpet improvement project for the Riverton Police Department that wasn’t completed during the current fiscal year.
“Outside of those changes, everything else reflects what has been discussed (previously),” Butterfield said.
Sales tax
Councilmember Kyle Larson asked for an update on local sales tax revenues, which Butterfield said are expected “to match current trends that have been exhibited the last few years.”
“Within the fiscal year 2025 budget it is projected that sales tax will generate $2.45 million,” Butterfield said. “That is a $200,000 increase over the fiscal year 2024 budget, which was $2.25 million.”
Actual sales tax income to-date for fiscal year 2024 has totaled more than $2.6 million, he added, “so if we perform consistent to the current fiscal year, actuals will surpass our projection, however we felt that it was prudent to be a little conservative, (so) we kept it … at $2.45 million.”
Law enforcement
Noting that there has been “a lot of discussion (about) the police department” in Riverton over the past few years, Mayor Tim Hancock said the fiscal year 2025 budget “demonstrates that we are doing our best” to support local officers.
The budget allocates almost $4.2 million to law enforcement – up from about $3.6 million for fiscal year 2024, according to the city’s current budget book.
“Hopefully we can continue to have the fruits of (this) budget continue going forward,” Hancock said. “(Because) we are anticipating that this is not going to last forever. We’ve got to be careful. We’ve got to figure out different ways that we can right-size the budget.”
It will take more than a “one-year infusion of cash” to address the “issues in our communities” that create the local “demand” for law enforcement activity, Hancock said.
“It requires more than just … throwing money at the issue,” he said. “Hopefully we can help things in that direction.”
Larson said it’s “sad” that law enforcement “has that size of impact on our budget.”
“Obviously with that amount of money we could pay for the airport, we could build all kinds of roads, (or) we could have a rec center,” he said. “I don’t see anybody in the audience that’s claiming that we’re not doing law enforcement the best we can do, (or) we’re not attacking the problem.”
Earlier, Councilmember Dean Peranteaux had pointed out that there was “nobody” in the audience that evening – a situation he found “disappointing.”
“This is one of the most important things that we as a city council do, is approving the budget,” Peranteaux said. “That kind of lays out the entire next year, and actually several years, so every decision that comes after today is kind of revolving around this budget, and if the right decisions aren’t made now, that will drastically impact us in the next year.”
For more information, call the City of Riverton at 856-2227.