The most important information about any government agency is revealed at the Budget Meetings. 

The City of Coos Bay staff have been busy preparing the 2022-23 proposed budgets which include the City and Urban Renewal Agency (URA). The proposals will be presented to the Budget Committee on Thursday, May 12, 2022, starting at 6 pm. This is a public meeting and will also be streamed live on the City’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-w12ikBNWVkoVWVqJ0bk2g.

The City and URA adopted budgets are a financial plan prepared for one fiscal year. The budgets are one of the most important and informative documents city officials and the public will use. Both entities are required to adhere to the state’s local budget law which is a group of statues that requires the preparation and adoption an annual budget that follows a very specific process. As such, the adopted budgets are a legal document that establishes the authorization to receive and spend money. It presents the anticipated resources (revenue) available to pay for the estimated requirements (expense) necessary to provide services to the community.

In actuality, the budget is a cycle which takes 12 months to complete. The budgeting process is composed of four phases: Preparation, Approval, Adoption, and Execution.

Preparation of the budget is the first phase of the cycle and allows for a review of needs considering the funds available. As an Oregon municipality, both the City and URA must plan for a balanced budget, meaning that resources and requirements are equal. As designated by the City’s Charter, the Budget Officer for both the City and URA is the City Manager. The Budget Officer, along with the Finance Director and other Department Directors, develop the proposed budget.

The next phase of the budget cycle is the approval phase, which is performed in the public meeting process. Oregon Budget Law requires each government to have a budget committee that is comprised (in part) of citizens. The Budget Committee is tasked with reviewing the budget, as proposed by the Budget Officer, and to monitor the process to ensure adherence to State Law. The Budget Committees (City and URA) will hold a public meeting on May 12, 2022, to listen to comments and questions regarding the proposed budget from interested citizens. Ultimately, the Budget Committee members who serve alongside the City Council and URA Board will approve the City and URA budgets for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2023. When approving the budgets, the Budget Committees must also approve the property tax rate and amounts.

After the Budget Committees have approved the budget, the approved budgets are then forwarded to the City Council and URA Board for adoption. The City Council and URA Board are scheduled to review the approved budget and hold a public hearing on June 7, 2022. At this hearing, citizens have another opportunity to provide comments and ask questions about the approved budget. The budgets are adopted by resolution.

Lastly, the execution phase is left to the City management to operate City and URA services for the next fiscal year within the financial parameters of the legally adopted budget.

We encourage citizen participation in the budget-making process, notice for the meeting is published in The World newspaper and posted on the City's website www.coosbay.org. Interested citizens can also review the budgets in all phases (proposed, approved, adopted), on the City’s website within the Finance Department’s page http://coosbay.org/departments/finance.