City Council Study Session October 5th 2026

The Ellensburg City Council held a study session on October 5, 2026, focused on an overview of the city’s 2027 budget and its priority-based budgeting process. Staff discussed revenue estimates, the city’s fund structure, economic assumptions, and constraints including rising operating costs and limited revenue growth. The city is taking a conservative approach to forecasting 2027–2028 revenues and expects to present the preliminary manager’s budget and hold a public hearing in November. Staff also said they would review potential property- and utility-tax options at a subsequent budget meeting; no tax change was approved at this session.

The discussion included general spending pressures, including street maintenance costs of about $30,000 per day during certain operations, and the use of one-time funds for the city’s enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. Staff described capital and utility funds, but the transcript contains no contract award, bid approval, vendor selection, or other procurement action, and no spending-related vote was identified.