By Cecilia Chan
Independent Newsmedia

Residents will not see their property taxes increase under a tentative $672 million city spending plan, which maintains service levels in Glendale.

City Council last week adopted the city manager’s proposed budget, which is a 3 percent drop from the prior year’s budget of $693 million. June 13 is the final budget adoption for fiscal year 2017-18, which begins July 1.

The budget provides for financial stability and keeps the city on track to realize a $50 million reserve by fiscal years 2019-20, according to Budget and Finance Director Vicki Rios.

The $672 million budget includes $399 million for operations, $152 million for the capital improvement plan, $77 million in debt services and $44 million in contingency, she said.

The budget calls for creating 14.25 full-time positions, including for code enforcement and the city attorney’s office, adding $100,000 for park maintenance and adding a project for unfinished Heroes Park for fiscal years 2023-27 in the capital improvement plan.

There is no projected general fund deficits over the five-year planning forecast.

Budget highlights include:
•Continued funding of vehicle replacements
•Funding for maintenance of police body cameras and related safety equipment
•Funding of a pilot program in the Convention and Visitor’s Bureau to increase hotel/motel occupancy
•Increased funding to replace aging residential recycling containers
•Replacement of Fire Department airpacks. $836,000
•Pavement Management, $12.8 million
•Improvements at Cholla Water Treatment Plant, $4.5 million
• Improvements at Arrowhead Water Reclamation Facility, $10.3 million