Public safety, social services among highlights of next City of Columbia budget

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

The City of Columbia held a work session on Monday to continue discussions about its budget for the 2025 fiscal year. 

During the city’s budget address last week, the city cited infrastructure, housing social services and public safety as its biggest priorities. The proposed budget for 2025 comes in at a $21 million deficit. The city will be bringing in roughly $537 million compared to the $558 million it expects to spend.

“Over the next couple of years, we do have a challenge where we're going to have our expenses above what we're looking at is bringing in for revenue,” Ward 2 City Councilwoman Lisa Meyer said. “We’re going to need to have some conversations about that.” 

Columbia is considered a full-service city, which is why their budget is larger compared to other cities with similar populations. This includes police, fire, street maintenance, parks and rec, and transportation services. 

Office of Violence Prevention

A new office of violence prevention will be allocated $500,000. This office will be an extension of the city manager’s office but will not take away funding from any public safety departments.

“We'll have to see how it works out. I  want to do what we can to make sure that, if you will,  that we're doing whatever we can to help people make the choice to not go into crime and if we have data that supports that, we'll have to monitor that,” Meyer said.

The $500,000 will go toward grants and supporting local agencies providing services. However, a manager for the officer of violence prevention was requested in the budget.

Police funding

More than half of the general fund, one of the city’s largest funds, will be allocated toward public safety, which the city says will be $68 million. Of that money, $33 million will go to the police department. 

“I'm super excited about the increase that we're seeing for the police department from both capital side as well as the employee side,” Meyer said. 

Room has been made in the budget for five full-time positions in the department. The city will also be giving CPD $1,130,000 for upgrades to its fleet of vehicles. Unlike the 2024 budget, parking enforcement was moved from police to public works. 

Maintenance on fire stations

The Columbia Fire Department made several maintenance requests on its existing fire stations. As part of the Capital Improvement Projects the fire department was allocated $1.3 million in funding. 

Increased employee benefits

During the city’s budget address, City Manager De’Carlon Seewood discussed the importance of having competitive salaries to help attract and retain quality employees. 

Seewood confirmed there will be a pay increase for city employees in the new budget. 

“It will vary between different groups. On the average it’s about three and a half percent,” Seewood said. 

As part of the proposed budget, there will be a $700,000 increase to the Employee Benefit Fund. According to the city, this is to help with the increases in claims in premiums. 

The administrative department’s overall budget decreased by $2.07 million. However, the entire department will increase by about eight full-time positions (8.63 FTE). The city manager’s office alone will increase by three full-time positions (3.0 FTE). 

Social services

The proposed budget includes a 3.2% increase in Social Services contracts, with a total of $1,855,860 dedicated in funding. Social Services was listed as one of Columbia’s top priorities in the budget. 

The DIVERT program is designed to integrate social services into public safety. The increase in funding includes an additional $100,000 for the DIVERT program and an additional staff member. 

Affordable Housing Trust Fund

Columbia is also looking to establish an Affordable Housing Trust Fund. Seewood explained the purpose of the Affordable Housing Trust Fund during last Friday’s budget address. 

“Affordability is different for different people.  But then when you look at our median income for our residents, it's around 60,000.  And so so you look at that median income, you look at that affordability factor.  So that means that a home,  that's a new home that's built has to be built around $180,000.  And so no one's building a home for $180,000 in the city of Columbia,” Seewood said. “The only way we're going to be to do that is to help incentivize it. That's part of what you can do with that trust fund.  All the parts are there. It may be the ability to help a down payment assistance or help with no rental assistance. It's really creating a fund  that can allow us to do additional programs and additional processes to actually help people get into houses and stay into housing.”

Other key updates

City transits will remain fare-free at the start of the fiscal year but will be reevaluated throughout the year. Buses have been fare-free since FY 2021. However, the city says it will need to transfer $700,000 from transportation sales tax to cover shortfalls created by going fare-free. 

On top of giving more than $1 million to CPD for fleet replacements, the proposed budget includes roughly $5 million to help fund other fleet requests across the city, which includes firetrucks, salt trucks, garbage trucks and more city vehicles. This money is not intended to be used all at once. Instead, it will go into a sinking fund to help with any vehicle replacement needs that may come up down the road. 

Meyer believes this is a proactive measure will pay off. 

“I'm really glad that our finance department has been proactive with that. I think that shows good planning for the future,” Meyer said. 

There will be an increase in the cost of power supply of approximately $5.5 million. There will also be a roughly 4% water utility rate increase for residents, if the budget is passed. The increase would take effect on Oct. 1. 

The budget session ended with showing the three finalists for the “Capture CoMo” contest. The winning photo will be included in the FY 2025 budget. Meyer said the three photos were a perfect way to end the session. 

“I don't want to get away from what a beautiful community we live in,” Meyer said. “Those beautiful photos showing downtown and showing, I believe that one picture was right over the Missouri River and the Burr Oak tree right off the trail. We have so much to be grateful for in this community.

A public budget hearing is scheduled for Aug. 5.

Check back for updates.