A message from the Town of Jackson:
JACKSON, Wyo. — The Town’s Fiscal Year 2027 Budget is a key component of broader, long-term Strategic Budgeting work. Staff developed the recommended budget to continue to meet community and organizational needs while remaining prudent fiscal stewards of taxpayer dollars. This budget addresses inflation and modest increases and limits new employees and levels of service.
This recommended budget would provide the following for our community:
- Continued investment in the Town’s incredible staff who provide our essential core services.
- Improved water supply in West Jackson and Upper Snow King Estates.
- Resources to preserve, protect, and extend the life of public infrastructure, facilities, and assets.
- Community safety, wildfire mitigation, and consistent snow removal and street sweeping.
- Rebuilding of Gregory Lane above and below ground and updates to Vine Street.
- A prudent reserve account for resilience and unforeseen challenges.
Over the past year, Town Council committed to and has had thorough and continued Strategic Budgeting discussions. The outcome has us focused on balancing revenue and expenses in the short-term, and expense growth and recurring revenue in the long-term. The Town has changed a lot in recent years. We are seeing significant shifts in the costs and the complexity of providing core services our community relies on, along with changing expectations of the level of service our community requires. We have seen substantial growth in the cost and demand for the core services that the Town provides, things we depend on every day. Today, the Town answers more calls for service for Firefighters and Police and treats and supplies more water, manages more pipes, and plows, patches, and paves more streets and sidewalks than ever before. As services have expanded, there has been no significant change in available revenue.
Strategic Budgeting is a major step forward toward a multi-year budget strategy to ensure long-term financial health for the Town and community. Through this process, we considered how our budget history resulted in a gap between revenues and expenses. We looked at priorities, along with possible areas for increased efficiency. With this, we have explored future funding sources and Council has coalesced around the idea of placing a ‘General Penny’ of sales tax on the ballot in the fall of 2028. An additional cent of sales tax in the General Fund will allow the Town to maintain its current level of core services, preserve existing infrastructure, ensure Town facilities remain viable, and invest in identified community priorities of housing, transportation, and conservation.
At its retreat this past January, Council developed a clear list of priorities and associated projects for this calendar year. The recommended FY27 budget complements this effort with funding identified for work on updating items such as the Land Development Regulations including the Natural Resource Overlay, an Ecosystem Indicator Report, and a Town Employee Housing Strategy to highlight a few. It is critical for Council and Staff to plot out priorities in advance to plan for appropriate finances and capacity.
The Town has incredible staff throughout the organization who, as a group, have a shared commitment to serve our community. This budget prepares our organization to be resilient and weather dynamic times while recognizing our responsibility to current and future generations.
