The City of Broken Arrow heads into the home stretch of its budgeting process for 2017.
A $189 million budget has been proposed. That’s up 8.5 percent from last year, with more money in the budget for streets and public safety from a Vision sales tax renewal..
"We're also including additional funds for the 2011 and 2014 general obligation bond projects, so those are some of the reasons why there is an increase in this year's budget from last year's," said city spokeswoman Krista Flasch.
The budget also includes a one-time 2 percent payment for non-union employees.
"Administration believes that it's more important to hire additional employees, and so it's going to be a stipend instead of a salary increase," Flasch said.
Like all Oklahoma cities, Broken Arrow is heavily reliant upon sales tax revenue, which fluctuates.
"But we base our sales tax revenue projections on historical data, and we believe we should see about a 3 percent increase," Flasch said.
A public hearing on the budget is tonight at 6:30 in the council chambers. Broken Arrow’s city council should adopt the budget June 20. The fiscal year begins July 1.
