Ephrata sees one-time revenue boost, but sales tax under budget projection
CHERYL SCHWEIZER | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 2 weeks, 6 days AGO
COURTESY PHOTO/CITY OF EPHRATA
Senior Reporter Cheryl Schweizer is a journalist with more than 30 years of experience serving small communities in the Pacific Northwest. She began her post-high-school education at Treasure Valley Community College and enerned her journalism degree at Oregon State University. After working for multiple publications, she has settled down at the Columbia Basin Herald and has been a staple of the newsroom for more than a decade. Schweizer’s dedication to her communities and profession has earned her the nickname “The Baroness of Bylines.” She covers a variety of beats including health, business and various municipalities. | October 23, 2026 3:20 AM
EPHRATA — Three-quarters of the way through the year, the city of Ephrata is spending slightly less than projected in its 2026 budget, but Finance Director Kristen McDonnell said that may change.
"We have a lot of people that wait to the end of the year to spend money," McDonnell told Ephrata City Council members. "Especially with our police (collective bargaining agreement) being ratified."
McDonnell provided the third-quarter update at the regular council meeting Wednesday.
The city's sales tax revenues were about $1.02 million through the end of the third quarter, about a 19.8% increase from the same period in 2025. But McDonnell said that was an outlier.
"We had quite a spike in July. That is when we started getting sales tax for those one-time projects, the (Grant County Public Utility District) project as well as the Walmart project," she said. "We have that one-time money from that construction. Our sales tax is actually trending a little bit low this year, once you start taking out that construction, so we will want to keep a pretty close eye on it for next year."
She recommended that city officials keep the one-time nature of the extra property taxes in mind when they're deciding what to do with it.
"We want that one-time revenue to be a one-time expenditure," she said.
Revenues are slightly below budget in the parks fund; that's mostly due to the timing of property tax collection, she said. The city's parks and streets departments are mostly funded through property taxes.
The city purchased a former commercial building on Basin Street Southwest with the intention of converting it into city offices. McDonnell said that project has been delayed.
"We were going to do the engineering on it, I believe, in this budget. We have not spent any money this year," she said.
The 2026 budget projected about $8 million in expenses in the city's water-sewer construction fund, of which the city has spent about $2.9 million.
"We budgeted for full use of all our loans. Our public works department (and) our engineers have done a great job finishing projects below budget. We've also had some projects that haven't been able to be started because we're busy with others. We'll be rolling those into next year," she said.
Council member Matt Moore said city officials will have to pay close attention to revenue, given the economic uncertainties.
"The general theme is that revenues in particular were unexpectedly good, but unreliably so. It's hard to guesstimate how close we'll get to those (projections)," he said.
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