Oregon: 2025 budget to be presented to council

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The City of Oregon’s proposed budget for 2025 will be presented to city council at its Dec. 16 meeting, according to the administration.
Joel Mazur, city administrator, informed members of council’s finance committee last week the budget is being completed and will be ready for their approval then.
The administration is projecting general fund revenues to reach about $24.9 million this year, Mazur said, and is budgeting for $25.4 million in revenues in 2025.
Expenditures this year will be impacted by the purchases of two parcels of property the administration is using to increase the footprint of an industrial park.
Mazur said the city has closed on the purchase of one parcel and will pay about $550,000 annually for five years on it. The city is closing on a deal for the other parcel that will cost about $1.2 million.
After conferring with department heads, items totaling about $2.6 million were removed from the proposed budget, including upgrades to the phone system ($120,000); ball field lighting at the recreation complex ($400,000); a portion of the road program ($650,000); renovation of Fire Station 42 ($550,000), an inclusive playground ($100,000), and others.
“Depending on how we end the year we could see more funds going back into the road fund,” Mazur said. “We’ve got to take a look at that at the end of the year. So that is a recommendation we cut out right now.”
One of the goals for next year is to re-establish the police department’s K-9 unit. Mazur told the committee. That will be funded with a $930,000 federal grant the city is receiving. The Community Oriented Policing Services grant will pay for the costs of two dogs and two vehicles used to transport them as well as training and equipment for the dogs and their officer handlers.
Another goal for the administration in the coming year is to install 12 “Flock” cameras that can read vehicle license plates. The cost of leasing the cameras will also be covered by the grant.
Mazur displayed a chart showing the average sale prices of residential property in the city has outpaced the average in Lucas County from 2019 through 2023. In 2023, the Oregon average was $214,360, compared to $174,762 in the county.
The administration would also like to see a hotel/motel tax enacted in the city.
“That is something that would have to happen at the state budget level. At the end of June, when they pass the state budget, that is something we will have to follow up on in the first quarter of 2025 to get it established here,”Mazur said.
The city’s 2.25 percent income tax is appropriated by ordinance so that 1.375 percent goes to police and fire operations and capital improvements; .50 percent goes to tax administration and water and sewer improvements; .25 percent goes to refuse collection and notes and bonds for the municipal complex, and .125 percent goes to storm drainage improvements.