Spokane Valley passes budget of $148 million

All but one of the Spokane Valley City Council members voted to pass the city’s 2026 budget on Tuesday.

The Valley City Council passed a $148.4 million budget with a 6-1 vote. Councilman Al Merkel was the only council member to vote against passing the budget.

“I don’t believe that we fully discussed the budget,” Merkel said during the meeting.

The council saw either a presentation or held a public hearing on the 2026 budget eight times in the past six months.

The budget includes $148.4 million – $68.6 million of those funds are recurring expenses. The debt the Valley has is on CenterPlace Regional Event Center and City Hall, city manager John Hohman said.

The budget includes $70.6 million for the city’s general fund and a 7.9% increase in recurring general fund revenues. The other $77.8 million will be distributed to 30 other city funds, according to city spokesperson Jill Smith. Around $47.9 million allocated to capital expenditures, but the city anticipates grant money will cover around 71% of those costs.

Merkel also brought up the city’s reserve, which is used to fund things in unexpected situations.

“Our actual fund reserve is approximately 62% – 12% more than the 50% that we’re supposed to have,” Merkel said. “Those funds are not being utilized, in my belief, in the right way.”

Merkel is mistaken, Hohman said. The city’s fund reserve is at 53%, around $36.6 million, he said. Reserve funds come from expenditures throughout the year. Every year the council is under budget, that money goes to the reserve fund.

“On Nov. 5, the council allocated extra reserve money to a variety of different projects; most of them were street maintenance activities. Before Nov. 5, the fund reserve was at around 62%. Now it is at 53%,” Hohman said.

Merkel has brought up the Valley’s shortage of police officers in several council meetings, particularly ones where the 2026 budget is discussed. No other council members took any issue with the budget.

“It’s easy to call a budget balanced when you don’t pay for some of your needs. And I’m going to say again, we’re still about at least 10 officers short. … So to me, that’s not a balance. That’s just not paying some of your bills,” Merkel said.

The Valley’s police department has 118 officers now, Spokane Valley Police Chief Dave Ellis said. In January last year, the department had 108 officers. According to Ellis, the department is fully staffed. Even so, the Valley will begin hiring 11 new police officers on Jan. 1, which was made possible after 59% of residents voted for Prop 1, a 0.1% sales tax increase in August to fund more law enforcement equipment and deputies.

The Valley budget will likely be posted online by Jan. 2.