ASHLAND — The City of Ashland is ahead of schedule in regards to tackling the city’s financial situation for 2025.
On Tuesday, Ashland City Council unanimously passed an ordinance adopting a permanent appropriations measure for the calendar year ending Dec. 31, 2025, while also repealing all temporary appropriations.
Ashland Mayor Matt Miller thanked councilmembers for their approval, along with Larry Paxton, the city’s finance director, for his diligent work.
“That is actually the earliest in the year we have ever had our budget in place,” Miller said.
Paxton told council on Tuesday the city has budgeted for expenditures of around $89 million — if the city were to spend “every dollar.”
“We do not anticipate spending every dollar,” he said. “That is not a good practice to do and there is some cash carryover that we will be using in 2025 from the good fortune that we’ve had in the previous year in an effort to help fund some of this.”
In December, Paxton told council the city’s expected revenue would total around $66 million. The city also has a cash balance of around $18 million.
“This probably will not be the final version by the time we get to December of this year,” Paxton said. “But it is the beginning process to get things in place so departments can anticipate their spending amounts.
“It allows us to enact this funding so that we can get this on the books and get started a lot earlier than what we have been able to do in a few years.”
Benefits to setting budget early
Paxton and Miller both revealed how establishing a spending plan earlier in the year can be a benefit to city initiatives.
Both officials received an email Tuesday from City Engineer Shane Kremser, who Paxton said is already eager to begin planning for city paving projects.
“This allows him (Kremser) to go and take those numbers and start working them so that instead of paving streets in the fall, we can pave them hopefully in the warmer months of the year.”
Miller explained Kremser has expressed concern in previous years that when a budget is approved later in the spring, it impacts the city’s ability to put its summer paving projects out for bid.
As a result, most contractors who would bid on Ashland’s work are reluctant to bid due to already having a full workload for the season.
“When they do bid on our project, they’re not necessarily as competitive in their pricing because they’ve already got a full workload already planned throughout the season,” Miller said. “There’s always the concern whether or not they’d be able to squeeze our streets in by the time the fall temperatures dip down below the allotted levels.
“This is a great thing that we did this year and I appreciate the City Council and the finance director and staff for all the work they did to make sure that we got this together in time to start the new year with a budget in place.”
(Below is a public copy of the City of Ashland’s 2025 appropriations.)
In other action Tuesday, City Council:
— designated Ward 4 Councilwoman Angela Woodward and Ward 2 Councilman Jason Chio to serve on Ashland’s Community Reinvestment Area Housing Council. At-large Councilman Dan Lawson will serve as an alternate.
