Finance

Finance Department Overview

The Finance Department oversees accounting and financial management services for the City, catering to other city departments and the public. Its responsibilities encompass processing accounts payable, payroll, utility billing, cash receipting, accounts receivable, and general ledger activities. Key functions include managing the annual audit and preparing the Annual Financial Report, crafting the annual budget, and continuously monitoring budgetary performance throughout the year.

The Department includes the Finance Director, Assistant Finance Director, Utility Billing Clerk and the Accounting Clerk.

To contact the Finance Director, please reach out using the following information: 

• finance [at] cityoftalent.org (Email)
• Phone: (541)535-1566 ext. 7

Finance News

Thank you for your attention to the City’s budget situation and proposed Public Safety Surcharge increase!

The City will host an Open House on July 22, 2026, to review the following information and invite public input:

• Staff will be available to answer any questions you may have from 4:30 to 7 PM.
• Council will hear verbal testimony starting at 5:30 PM on July 22 / Talent Community Center / 104 Main Street

Council will likely consider and possibly adopt staff’s proposal at the August 5 Regular Council meeting (6:45 PM at Talent Community Center / 104 Main Street).

Interested members of the public an provide comment on July 22 or August 5 (see above) or by sending an email to: publictestimony [at] cityoftalent.org (publictestimony[at]cityoftalent[dot]org) .

To read more about why the City is considering a fee increase and what is proposed, click on the links below:

1. The City General Fund is out of balance.
2. This is a common problem; the City is not alone.
3. The City needs to bring the General Fund into balance by matching revenues with expenditures.
4. City has taken multiple steps to cut expenditures (including 1 layoff; 1 position restructured). Those are not enough to close the gap.
5. Proposal: Increase Public Safety Surcharge (currently $5.66 per month per household)
   1. Raise residential charge to $10.50 per month
   2. Charge non-residential customers based on trips.
6. Other Options
   1. Short-term: continue spending down fund balance
   2. Long-term:
      1. Change policing philosophy
      2. Public Safety levy

1. The City General Fund is out of balance.

Definitions:

• Fund Balance: Money left over at the end of the fiscal year. The budget includes a Beginning Fund Balance and an Ending Fund Balance.
• General Fund: The city’s main operating fund. In Talent, it pays for police, administration, finance, the city recorder, community development (including building, planning and code enforcement), and other core services.

The General Fund has been growing further out of balance for several years because the cost of hiring and retaining public employees is growing faster than revenues:

• The major cost-drivers for employee costs are retirement (PERS); health care; and bargained wage increases.
• The primary source of revenue for the General Fund is property taxes. Because property taxes on an existing home can’t grow more than 3% per year, the General Fund is being “squeezed.

2. This is a common problem; the City is not alone.

The following examples are what other cities in Jackson County are doing to respond to the same pressures:

City of Phoenix:

Public Safety Fee:

• $3 per month in 2025

• Increased to $6 per month in January of 2026

• Increase to $10 per month scheduled for January 2027. 

Parks fee: Proposed 5% increase (City Council consideration July 7, 2026)

City of Rogue River:

• Public Safety fee increased from $5/month to $10/month (July 1, 2025)[i]

City of Medford:

• $9.38/month increase (multiple fees) as of July 1, 2026[ii]

• Increases dedicated to street maintenance, storm drainage, sewer treatment, public safety and parks

City of Central Point:

• Increased single-family home Public Safety Fee from $3/month to $5/month (January 1, 2026)

• Increase commercial Public Safety Fee from $3/month to a minimum of $15 (with higher tiers at $30; $60; and $180/month)[iii]

• (Cities in Jackson County are showing a lot of restraint. City of Portland, by comparison, has introduced about $40/month in fee and tax increases in 2026.)
   

3. The City needs to bring the General Fund into balance by matching revenues with expenditures. 

Because the General Fund has been out of balance since 2023, the City has been spending down the “Fund Balance.” A Fund Balance is a lot like a household’s combined checking & saving account—it represents how much money is in the fund after all revenues and expenditures are accounted for.

The fund balance in the General Fund has been spent down:

• $5 million at the end of Fiscal Year 2023–24
• $4.5 million at the end of Fiscal Year 2024–25
• ~$3.6 million at the end of Fiscal Year 2025-26 (June 30,2026)
• $2.6 million (forecasted) at the end of Fiscal Year 2026-27 

This is a problem:

• It means we are spending more than we are taking in – and that cannot continue indefinitely. (You can think of it as dipping into your savings every year to pay for regular expenses.)
• The City earns money from interest, so the smaller the Fund Balance gets, the less interest we earn and the more we are going to have to increase revenue (or decrease spending) to get it back to balance. The City is earning about 4.0% on our savings account (Local Government Investment Pool) right now. That means, each time we reduce the fund balance by $100,000, the size of the problem we are trying to solve gets $4,000 bigger. Put another way, each million dollars the fund balance declines, we’d need to increase the public safety fee by another $1/month/household in Talent.
• The fund balance is “cash” for the City’s cash-flow. Each fiscal year begins on July 1. The primary source of revenue for the General Fund is property tax income, which doesn’t start arriving until November. The City’s financial policy is to keep the equivalent of at least four months of expenditures ($1.8 million) in fund balance to avoid ever having to borrow to meet cash needs.

• The fund balance includes not just the City’s funds available to pay bills (like a “checking” account), but also all of the City’s General Fund savings to help survive a disaster, major recession, or other unexpected financial crisis.

  The City will have to solve this problem, sooner or later. And the longer we delay, the more difficult it will become and the “margin for error” will become smaller.

4. City has taken multiple steps to cut expenditures (including 1 layoff; 1 position restructured). Those are not enough to close the gap.

The current budget eliminates 1 General Fund position, saving the City about $150,000. 

Staff are also in the process of consolidating the Community Development Director and Public Works Director into one position.

The City has taken multiple other steps to create savings and increase revenues:

• Currently auditing all “land-line” phone lines to see which can be eliminated.
• Recent year budgets have deferred all non-essential investments in police equipment (e.g., dash cams).
• City is selling surplus equipment and vehicles.
• Council passed an increase the Transient Lodging Tax.
• Council established a master fee schedule and adjust fees for inflation every year.
• The City has made it easier to rent space in the Community Center and has begun marketing that space.
• City has made it a policy to purchase all fuel from County public works, which is less expensive (though less convenient).
• City is reducing reliance on contractors (e.g., performing more human resources functions “in house”).
• Budget is reducing subsidy to the Harvest Festival, hopefully to be eliminated this year.
• Staff is working to expand options to invest fund balances and earn more interest.

Despite those actions, staff estimate that to rebalance the General Fund will require an additional $300,000 (in revenue increases or expenditure reductions).

5. Proposal: Increase Public Safety Surcharge (PSS)

Target was selected based on:

• Minimum responsible staffing levels (including retaining School Resource Officer)

• Minimum amount needed to balance General Fund

  • Increase Residential Public Safety Surcharge (currently $5.66 per month) to $10.50 per month
  • Charge non-residential customers based on trips “generated."
    • Under the current method each business “unit” = 1 household, and non-residential accounts generate 4% of PSS revenue

    • The “Trip Generation” method will be based on studies published in the “ITE” Manual, which is the method used to calculate the City’s transportation fee. With this method, commercial accounts would generate 25% of revenue.

       

6. Other Options

In the short-term, the City could:

• Make no changes and continue to spend down fund balance for another year.

• Phase in changes.

In the longer-term, logical options include:

• Change policing approach (a foundational principle of discussions-to-date is that the City needs 24-hour police coverage)

• Place a Public Safety levy on the ballot for voters to consider.

• Seek additional transportation funding – which could allow the transportation fee to be reduced. Options could include a local gas tax or increasing the local diesel tax.

[i] https://cityofrogueriver.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/Packet-2.pdf         

[ii] https://www.medfordoregon.gov/Government/Departments/Finance/Utility-Billing/2026-Utility-Rate-Changes-and-Bill-Breakdown

[iii] https://kobi5.com/news/top-stories/central-point-to-increase-public-safety-fee-adopting-tiered-rate-structure-289589/

New City Hall Hours

Starting April 1, 2026, City Hall will be open from 8:30 am to 4:30 pm Monday - Thursday and 8:30 am to 1:00 pm on Fridays.