Salem’s looming budgetary crisis will require millions of dollars in cuts to city services next year with everything from police officers and firefighters, to the library and splash pads potentially on the chopping block.  Determining a path forward will be a task for the nine elected members of the Salem City Council, and nine appointed budget committee members. Committee members said they are preparing for a “messy” process as services get cut and the community begins to feel the impacts. Deciding what to cut based on community feedback will be the biggest hurdle, and the city has put out a survey seeking input from Salem residents. Complicating the road ahead is the upcoming shift on the city council following elections in May. Three new city councilors — Paul Tigan, Shane Matthews and current budget committee Chair Irvin Brown — will take office in January as Councilors Virginia Stapleton, Trevor Phillips and Jose Gonzalez depart. Councilor Julie Hoy will also become mayor in January, leaving her ward 6 council seat vacant, and Mayor Chris Hoy will no longer hold office. Here’s a guide to what happens next and how to get involved.  What’s driving the budget gap? The budget crisis affects the city’s general fund, which is mostly funded by local property taxes and pays for a majority of city services like firefighters, police officers, park operations, building and planning, and the city library. State law requires Salem’s budget to be balanced, and there are restrictions on how money can be moved between different city funds.  That means cuts must be made to close a nearly $18 million gap between revenue and city expenses. City leaders say the driving issue is that property tax revenue has not kept pace with growing costs and inflation.  Most of the city’s costs come in the form of salaries and benefits for employees which are set during contract negotiations with labor unions.  City councilors in October approved increased salaries and benefits for most city employees which will cost Salem $25 million over three years. Once those contracts are negotiated, the city must pay the agreed amount to employees whether it has the money budgeted for it or not, said Drew Cohen, a member of the budget committee and a budget analyst at the Oregon Health Authority Cohen said a big misconception about the city’s budget is that it operates like a household budget. “Typically when you budget…you don’t budget for something you can’t pay for. In this case, we are being told we have to pay for this even if we don’t have the revenues for it,” Cohen said in an interview. “The reality is we have to pay for (city employees) …So you are either stuck with reducing the people, or finding more revenue, which is kind of where we are at right now.” Cohen said he believes the city has a hard time getting information out to voters and explaining what is needed and how they can help the city out, especially in areas like northeast Salem. He said city Councilors should do more town hall style events similar to a town hall hosted by city councilors Vanessa Nordyke Deanna Gwyn last month.   “People are not aware of the issue and that is partly due to the fact that I think the city of Salem is so cloistered in their offices that they don’t actually get out and see the people,” Cohen said.   Little clarity on what to cut No city councilor or budget committee member has put forward a proposal for what to cut. At an initial meeting Oct. 30, members agreed the task ahead would be difficult and result in unpopular decisions. Mayor-Elect Julie Hoy, who is currently a city councilor and becomes mayor in January, ran on a platform saying the city did not need to cut public safety or close its library, but did not suggest specific cuts or other ways to increase city revenue. Months after her election, she offered no concrete plans for how she would approach the largest challenge confronting Salem, saying only that the committee will have to think outside the box and gather community feedback. “Financial challenges in any organization or group, business or home require all hands on deck,” Hoy said in a text. “There are a lot of really smart people in Salem. We can solve this problem but we obviously can’t do it the way it’s been done.”  Hoy said she is encouraged that the committee started the process early and said she feels things are off to a good start. She also wants community members to be part of the conversation as the committee develops its plan and priorities.  “I want the people to feel heard,” Hoy said. “Their engagement is necessary to the work we do on council. Their input deserves consideration.”  Nordyke, who was reelected in May to a second term on the council, told Salem Reporter during an interview that the most difficult part of the budget process will be figuring out where the community stands on where to make the inevitable cuts. “The harder question is where would you be, as a citizen, willing to accept less? And that is a question that is very difficult to answer because it is not a popularity contest, it is about, ‘Well, if you had to cut somewhere, where would you cut and why?’” Nordyke said. “If I ask that question of community members, that is when I typically get hands thrown up into the air and just a repetition of, ‘Well, I don’t know exactly where.’” City Councilor Micki Varney told Salem Reporter that certain cuts and adjustments are already being made even prior to the formulation of the new budget. Those include a police department decision to cut its downtown and behavioral health teams starting in January to prioritize emergency call response. “I don’t know what the magic bullet is and I’m really looking forward to hearing what the budget committee will do, and I’d also like to see the budget committee members make a real effort of getting information from the wards that they represent and come back with that rather than just guessing,” Varney said.  City leaders say upcoming budget will be harder Faced with a deficit last spring, City Manager Keith Stahley initially proposed a budget that cut jobs at the Salem Public Library, turned off splash pads for the summer and cut money for popular summer programs like Movies in the Park. The resulting public outcry led budget committee members to restore funding for many of those services through dipping into city savings and the last of Salem’s federal Covid relief money. That won’t be possible again, said Brown, the current budget committee chair and a councilor-elect.  “This past year, the community was up in arms when we were talking about cutting the splash pads … and once again we came to the rescue and we did some things under Mayor (Chris) Hoy’s leadership and with the city manager. That is going to be very different going forward. Meaning there may not be splash pads next year. At all. It is having those types of hard courageous conversations that we as a group are going to have to have,” Brown said at the initial budget meeting. “I think there is a perception out there that when we moved funds last year to keep the doors of the library open, there is a perception that we can do that for anything, and that is not so.”  Brown said the committee will have to find a way to best communicate the fact that services like public safety, despite wide community support for such services, are not free.   “When we think about getting ready for this next cycle we have a lot to share with our community because their anticipation is that this group, this body is going to fix it,” Brown said. “I’ll just let that sit there. Because that’s a heavy weight.”  During the Oct. 30 budget committee meeting, Stahley said the city may put a levy on the May 2025 ballot to ask for additional funding to keep city services running, despite polling showing such a measure would almost certainly fail. Regardless, Stahley said cuts to next year’s budget are inevitable.  “I hope that we can do that and I hope that our community will support our ask. I cannot form a budget though based on those expectations.” Stahley said the city is already running an audit on the city manager’s office to identify efficiencies and build community trust. Two more audits will be done on the information technology department and the city urban renewal agency, Stahley said. The audits will help as the new budget develops, he said.  What comes next for the budget committee?  In November, the budget committee will begin discussing city priorities which will inform the budget and help guide decisions when it comes time to make cuts to city services.  The committee’s next meeting to continue discussions on the city’s five-year financial forecast is on Nov. 13. The committee will have another meeting on Jan. 15, three meetings in April and another in May. A full schedule can be found online.  Budget committee meetings are open to the public and take place in the city council chambers at 555 Liberty Street S.E. Meetings can be watched on YouTube, and a meeting schedule is available online.  In April, Stahley will propose a budget for the upcoming year. The budget committee will work on refining the budget over the series of spring meetings. Salem City Council typically adopts a budget in June. How to participate in the city budget discussions  To provide input for the budget committee, a city community survey link can be found online.  The budget committee can be reached at [email protected], or 503-588-6040.More information about the budget committee can be found here. Contact reporter Joe Siess: [email protected] or 503-335-7790.A MOMENT MORE, PLEASE – If you found this story useful, consider subscribing to Salem Reporter if you don’t already. Work such as this, done by local professionals, depends on community support from subscribers. Please take a moment and sign up now – easy and secure: SUBSCRIBE. The post Salem faces deep budget cuts in 2025. Here’s what to know about the process.  appeared first on Salem Reporter.