The Orem City Council on Tuesday unanimously adopted the 2023-2024 fiscal year budget, the financial plan for the city for the coming year.

“It represents the financial guidance necessary to prudently implement the goals and plans of the mayor and City Council,” said Brenn Bybee, city manager. “The budget is built with a conservative mindset of underestimating revenues and overestimating expenses.”

The operating revenues are estimated at $152,344,861, with $128,654,868 representing new revenue.

Some of the major revenue sources come from sales tax ($39.8 million), water fees ($15.6 million), property taxes ($10.7 million), stormwater ($5.3 million), wastewater ($5.2 million) and impact fees ($1.6 million).

Two residents spoke about their concerns over rising water fees, but were directed to Chris Tschirki, Public Works director, to find out information on programs that may be able to help them.

Other than that, there was little concern about the balanced budget that was proposed.

As for personnel, there are 443 full-time employees and 149 part-time at the city.

When it comes to debt, the city has two general obligation bonds equaling $26.6 million with yearly payments of $2.3 million. There are five revenue bonds equaling $42.5 million with yearly payments of $4.26 million. Lease obligations equal $553,933, and all indebtedness equals $73.47 million.

In charting the fees and costs for Orem as compared to other Wasatch Front cities, Orem is regularly below the average and most often near the bottom in cost to the resident, city figures indicate. According to Bybee, controls are put in place to monitor all revenue collections and expenditures throughout the year.

“Due to the impacts of inflation on our services, our water and sewer base will see minimal increases,” Bybee said. “While these proposed increases won’t cover the cost of inflation, it represents our best balancing of funding needs and impact on our residents.”

The base-rate increase for water and sewer are both 0.7%. Rates will increase for tier 1 and 2 water use by 1 cent per 1,000 gallons while tier 3 and 4 use rates are to rise 2 cents. Sewer use rates will increase by 1.2%. Stormwater fees are scheduled to increase to $8.20 per equivalent service unit per month from the current fee of $8, a 2.5% increase.