IDAHO FALLS — An Aug. 14 budget hearing set the stage for The City of Idaho Falls to finalize its spending plan on Aug. 28.
Municipal Services, the legal department, the fire department and the Public Works would all receive budget increases of more than 10%, while the Parks Department will take a 17% cut in the 2025-2026 fiscal year.
The Aug. 14 preview also included a short list of fees that would increase in the coming fiscal year
The plan also includes pay raises for city council members.
Parks
On Thursday morning, EastIdahoNews.com discussed some changes with Pam Alexander, Municipal Services director.
Alexander said a decrease in the Parks Department’s budget won’t result in a reduction of services. The budget decrease instead is a result of responsibilities the Parks Department previously had shifted to other departments, such as public works.
Alexander said the recreation plan is required by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. In previous years, the funds for the recreation plan came from the city, but now the Parks Department will charge those fees directly to Idaho Falls Power.
“That (recreation) plan has to do with landscaping along the Snake River, restroom facilities, walkways and things of that nature. That was something in the past that Parks just paid for,” Alexander said. “So they’re going to shift and charge the power company for those services that are along the Snake River.”
She said the recreation plan is something required by the state because the city has a utility company.
Fee increases
The city is required by the state to conduct a public hearing any time it proposes a fee increase of more than 5% or to add new fees. For pre-existing fees, or increases of less than 5%, the city is not required to have a public hearing.
The Idaho Falls Airport will increase its “Customer Facility Charge” from $4 to $6 and will be introducing new fees for badging, parking and printing, though no clarifying information for those fees was given during the hearing.
The city golf courses will have an increase of 3%-5% on green passes and pass fees, as well as an increase for sponsorship packages.
Various recreations fees from the Parks and Recreation Department will however, be removed.
From Public Works, service connection fees for water would increase 3% and the monthly fees for water would rise 5%. Sanitation monthly fees will also increase 5%, as will sewer main connection fees.
Power is requesting a fee increase of 2%-10% for various base, demand and service charges.
Fiber’s monthly charges are set to increase 3%-9%
Fire emergency medical services (EMS) fees will increase 5%.
Property taxes
For the purposes of property taxes, property valuations are done by the county, not the city. The city however takes those results and uses the information to set the levy rate for property taxes.
For the 2025-2026 fiscal year, property valuations as a whole across the city have increased, resulting in slightly higher property taxes. For example, for a residential property valued at $325,000, the taxable value of the property will increase by around 4.1%. On the other end of that scale, for a residential property valued at $625,000, the taxable value is set to increase 3.1%.
Commercial properties are set to see an increase in taxable value of 9.5% across the board.
Capital improvement funds
For the 2025-2026 fiscal year, the zoo would receive a little more than $1 million. EastIdahoNews.com asked Alexander who the money would be used.
“So, on the zoo, that big ticket item that they have right there in the zoo, they’ve got a little over a million dollars in their zoo capital improvement. This is on page 32 (of the city budget book,)” Alexander said. “This is for building improvements that they’re going to do at the zoo, and they’re also going to be doing some front entrance improvements.”
The city also plans to spend $500,000 a new storage facility for the Idaho Falls Fire Department, as stated in the city’s budget book.
During the budget hearing, the city reported that a new storage facility would be “essential” for fire operations in the city and that the new storage facility would help protect and preserve the fire department’s equipment, in turn protecting city assets.
The city also reported that the $500,000 would just be a “portion” of the cost for the new storage facility. Should the city receive the funds, it estimates that construction of the new storage facility would take 18 months to complete.
Raises for city council and mayor
Raises for both the city’s council members and the mayor have been discussed and are set to be passed along with the city budget.
Members of the city council stated that the time they spend in council and doing council related work has increased, and that their pay should increase to reflect that.
There was previously a plan to implement pay raises incrementally over the next four years. The plan would have ended with a final pay raise in 2029, with council member’s pay at $643.25 bi-weekly.
The new proposed raise will see city council member’s pay increase from $589.62 bi-weekly to $807.70 bi-weekly in 2027.
The mayor was also set to receive smaller raises with each year in the previous plan. Now, the mayor’s pay would increase from $3,930.78 bi-weekly to $4,515.39 bi-weekly in 2027, and $4,807.70 in 2028.
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