Moses Lake to host budget hearing

MOSES LAKE — Moses Lake residents will have a chance to register their opinions on the city’s 2026 budget at a public hearing during the Nov. 26 Moses Lake City Council meeting. The public hearing is being continued from Wednesday’s council meeting. Finance Director Madeline Prentice said that while the city’s projected general fund deficit should be smaller in 2026, there’s still a deficit.  

“(The 2026 budget) does have an approximately $1 million deficit in a $41 million (combined) general and street fund. We do have a healthy reserve, so we are able to absorb that deficit,” Prentice said. “We’re working very hard to reduce that even more, but currently it does have a $1 million deficit.” 

The general fund pays for most city operations, the police and fire departments, parks, administrative and clerical personnel, and the library, among other things. The street fund pays for upgrades and repairs to city streets. Other city services, like water and sewer, are in separate accounts because they are funded through the fees charged for their services. The city also has a “rainy day” fund, which was implemented this year, to help pay for emergencies. Prentice said city officials anticipate adding about $287,000 to that fund in 2026.  

City Manager Rob Karlinsey said the 2026 general fund revenue projection does include federal money the city received during the COVID-19 pandemic via the American Rescue Plan Act. The city will be using about $1 million of that, Karlinsey said.  

“It’s really closer to $2 million if you count the fact we’re using ARPA, which is a one-time funding source, to help the general fund,” Karlinsey said.  

Total general fund revenues for 2026 are forecast at about $39.02 million in 2026, a small decrease from the estimated revenue in 2025. Revenues for the entire 2026 budget were projected to be $118.3 million.  

Total expenses for 2026 are projected to be about $125.4 million, an increase of about $8 million over the 2025 budget projection. Karlinsey said in an earlier interview the increase is mostly due to the addition of more capital projects. 

City officials did cut about $2 million in expenses from the 2026 preliminary budget. Prentice said city officials overestimated the cost of some water system construction. 

Capital improvement fund expenses were projected at about $27.3 million. The bulk of that, about $18 million, is for street improvements.  

“A lot of (capital improvement spending) is due to grants that we’re proposing and expecting to receive,” Prentice said. 

Council members approved the property tax levy for 2026 on a 6-1 vote. Council member Don Myers voted no due to what he said was insufficient information. 

Council members have options on how and if they want to increase the property tax assessment. Assessed valuations are part of that process, which come from the Grant County Auditor. Prentice said the city hasn’t received that information yet, and Myers said he didn’t want to approve anything until he had that information. 

“I was going to ask how we can make this decision until we know what the rate is going to be,” he said. 

Mayor Dustin Swartz said in his opinion it’s easier to estimate based on assessed valuation than it is on sales tax revenue, which is a major revenue source for the general fund. 

“Sales tax, to me, is a scarier proposition to project out right now, quite frankly, and that’s not a small piece of the pie here,” Swartz said.