Why did City Council implement this charge?

During a poll last year, we learned that the community was supportive of us looking at ways to reinvest in our services. While this work started around 5 years ago, the conversations to address the deficit have been in the works for the past 18 months. 

Our budget committee worked hard to examine many possible solutions to improve the situation of our declining reserves. City Councilors were also asked to explore solutions that would both keep costs down while preventing the budgetary gap from getting any larger.

Several joint Budget Committee & Council meetings were held to review the options for sustainable solutions; the City Services Charge was one of them. If you would like to review the deliberations you may watch the City Council sessions held on July 13th, 2021; August 10th, 2021; and September 22nd, 2021. 

Past City Council Sessions, their meeting materials including the recordings, may be found on the City Councils calendar here.

This option ultimately allows us to equitably share the cost of service among McMinnville community members living within city limits and provide the most flexibility in raising revenue.