City manager releases first round of proposed budget cuts, more coming April 25

from the City Manager’s Office and staff reports

Eugene City Manager Sarah Medary will present the city of Eugene’s 2025-2027 proposed budget to the Eugene Budget Committee Wednesday, April 30, at 5:30 p.m.

The proposed budget and information on how to access the Budget Committee meeting are available through the city’s Budget Committee website.

“This year’s budget stands out as one of the most challenging in my career,” said Medary. “After so many years of pursuing efficiencies, consolidating services, and making difficult reductions, the room for further cuts without significant service impacts has narrowed considerably.”

“As we enact these budget strategies and investments, our organization remains committed to long-term stability and is implementing several strategies to build a strong foundation for the future. These include collaborative long-range financial planning across all departments, the next community survey, strategic plan review, and hosting a long-term financial stabilization strategies workshop with the City Council later this year,” said Medary.

Over the past five years, the city has worked to align resources more closely with community priorities. This began with the return of the community survey in 2022, which informed the city’s first strategic plan.

Process improvements allowed the city to continue making meaningful community investments, even while implementing necessary reductions across all service areas.

The city also shifted to a two-year budget cycle, enabling greater flexibility, more effective long-term planning, and increased efficiency.

At the same time, the city adopted a priority-based budgeting approach to better understand program-level costs and support more informed decision-making.

However, the city manager noted that the City Council has never assigned priorities to the programs.

“We started off with a very incremental annual, what I would call somewhat reactive budget process to shifting to (a) program-based budget. It’s…actually called priority-based budgeting, but it does it through programs and so really until you set the priorities, I’m going to continue to call it a program-based budget,” said Medary.

Several city councilors are saying it’s now the time to set the priorities.

“Nobody wants their favorite service to be reduced or even eliminated. But at some point, we have to start having these very real conversations,” said Councilor Randy Groves. 

Councilor Greg Evans said what we really need is “prioritization of the services that we can and should deliver, and we’re supposed to deliver by charter, and those that maybe we can deliver in a different way if we work with some of our partners like Lane County and Springfield to deliver the same services in a more comprehensive and collaborative way.”

“We haven’t had the conversation about priorities,” said Councilor Mike Clark, “and we need to before we move forward to institute a new tax. Otherwise we risk the option that the community may petition to reverse our decision.”

Like other cities across Oregon, the city’s general fund continues to face a structural imbalance, as service costs outpace revenue. Contributing factors include property tax limitations, inflation, economic uncertainty, and growing demand for services.

Assuming several of Council’s priority programs and services—funded on a one-time basis for the 2023–2025 biennium—are added as ongoing costs in the coming biennium, the gap totals $11.5 million per year or $23 million for the 2025–2027 biennium.

City Council adopted a fire service fee on February 10, 2025, as a new revenue source to stabilize city fire services and reduce the general fund gap to $3.5 million per year over the next biennium.

The 2025–2027 proposed budget, released April 18, assumed this new revenue would be collected in the upcoming biennium. However, the fire service fee has been referred to the ballot by petition, and the city will not be able to approve a budget that relies on revenue from the fire service fee.

An amended budget addressing the full $11.5 million annual gap will be released Friday, April 25 and the city manager will present a budget with $11.5 million in annual general fund reductions to the Eugene Budget Committee on April 30, 2025.

The Budget Committee is a standing committee that reviews the proposed operating and capital budget each biennium and makes a recommendation on the budget to the City Council for final adoption.

The Budget Committee is composed of an equal number of City Council members (8) and appointed citizen members (8). In addition to the April 30 meeting, the Budget Committee will meet in-person at City Hall on the following dates (with virtual options available):

• 5:30 p.m., Wednesday, May 14: Budget Deliberation and Public Comment
• 5:30 p.m., Wednesday, May 21: Budget Deliberation and Public Comment
• 5:30 p.m., Wednesday, May 28: Public Hearing and Recommendation to Council
• 5:30 p.m., Monday, June 23: City Council Public Hearing and Action

The first round of budget cuts are described in detail in the budget document released online April 18:

¹FTE represent budgeted positions. See the Personnel section for additional information about FTE.
²See the Other Funds Budget Changes page for additional details.

Central Services

• Downtown Clean Up and Beautification: Reduces $450,000 for the Facilities Downtown program by eliminating funding for enhanced cleaning, including routine pressure washing, graffiti removal, rapid response to biohazard and hazmat cleanup, and beautification, such as seasonal decorations and lighting and the downtown hanging basket and flower planter program.
• Reallocate Position Funding: Transitions 1.0 FTE and $538,000 to the Risk and Benefits Fund (620) by reallocating portions of funding for three positions that provide leadership and support to functions within the Risk and Health funds. This reallocation more closely aligns the positions’ funding with the work being performed.
• Energy Management Program: Removes $226,000 in Facility Rate Charges to the General Fund due to the 1.0 FTE reduction of a filled Senior Program Coordinator in the Facilities Services Fund (615). The Energy Management Program housed in the Facilities Services Fund (615) is being eliminated as budget reduction strategy. The Facility Services Fund is one of five Internal Service Funds (ISF) that charge other city funds for services provided. Due to the mix of FTE and services provided, about 60% of Facilities rates are paid by the General Fund and 40% are paid by other Non-General Funds. This reduction recognizes lower facility rate costs to the General Fund as a result of the program elimination.
• Emergency Management: Removes $172,000 in Risk Rate Charges to the General fund due to the 1.0 FTE reduction of a vacant Management Analyst position in the Risk and Benefits Fund (620). The position, housed in the Employee Resource Center is being eliminated as a budget reduction strategy. The Risk and Benefits fund is one of five Internal Services Funds (ISF) that charge other City funds for services provided. Due to the mix of FTE and services provided about 50% of Risk rates are paid by the General Fund, and 50% are paid by other Non-General Funds. This reduction recognizes lower risk rate costs to the General Fund as a result of the elimination of the position.
• Position Vacancy: Removes 0.5 FTE and $107,000 from a vacant Administrative Specialist position. An additional 0.1 FTE and $21,550 are also reduced from the Risk and Benefits Fund (620) for expenses associated with this position. The strategy reduces the administrative support capacity for services provided by the Employee Resource Center.

Fire and Emergency Medical Services

• Alternative Response: Reduces the General Fund budget for the Alternative Response Program by $1,550,000. The City will provide reduced funding for crisis response efforts in 2025-2027 using opioid settlement funds on a one-time basis. See the Opioid Settlement Funding page for more information on historical and current opioid settlement investments.

Library, Recreation and Cultural Services

• Position Vacancy Savings: Reduces $854,000 generated from vacancy savings to allow for completion of LRCS operational review. Like Central Services, the LRCS department has hired a consultant to review operations and provide benchmarking. Once this review is complete, LRCS will evaluate the information and adjust this ongoing reduction strategy to align operations with revenues.
• Community & Cultural Affairs Funding Realignment: Transitions 0.5 FTE and $289,000 for a Senior Management Analyst position from the General Fund to the Cultural Services Subfund (031). This shift moves the remainder of the Community and Cultural Affairs budget into the Cultural Services Subfund to better align Cultural Services Resources with associated expenses.

Police

• Community Safety Officer Program: Reduces 1.0 FTE and $245,000 for a vacant Community Safety Officer position; 19.0 FTE Community Safety Officer positions remain in the program and are supported by the Community Safety Payroll Tax Fund.

Public Works

• Seasonal and Contracted Staffing: Reduces $96,000 for seasonal staffing and contracted services within the park system.
• Program Funding Realignment: Shifts 0.20 FTE and $91,000 from the General Fund (011) to the Stormwater Fund to realign funding for stormwater-related work performed by the Public Works Operations Manager.