Des Moines Residents Can Now Share Budget Priorities Through Online Solution Exercise

"The magnitude of our budget gap this year makes it critical for our leaders to go the extra mile to gather input from our residents before making these challenging decisions," City Manager Scott Sanders said. "This exercise will help our residents understand the choices the City is faced with and contribute meaningful feedback to the City Council as they consider these options."

The City of Des Moines faces an estimated $12 million general fund budget gap in its Fiscal Year 2028 budget and an additional $5 million gap in its Fiscal Year 2029 budget partly due to the recent state property tax legislation that limit the City's ability to capture growth in its property tax revenues.

"The challenges our City faces in this year's budget and our situation moving forward mean that the City of Des Moines will no longer be able to afford the level of service that exist today," Sanders said. "As we navigate these challenging discussions, it is important to have opinions from our public to guide our City Council's budget discussions and savings decisions."

Due to the challenge in this year's budget, the public budget process was started approximately six months early with a budget discussion to identify the size of the budget gap on May 18 before Sanders and Finance Director Nick Schaul presented the City Council with identified savings options to close the gap at a June 17 Council discussion in which options for all City Departments were presented.

Fiscal Year 2028 / 2029 Budget Timeline

• June 29 (Today): Public Budget Solution Exercise made available online at DSM.city/Budget for residents and business owners in Des Moines to use. This digital tool will be live through the end of July, and will provide a mechanism for the public to better understand the budget challenge and give feedback on their priorities for the City budget.
• July 9 at 6 p.m.: Public budget meeting to discuss budget gap and potential solutions
• Early August: Summary of public budget solution exercise results is published
• August 26: City Manager Scott Sanders will present a package of consensus budget cuts and savings to City Council
• September 14: City Council will vote on City Manager's presented package of consensus savings giving direction to City Manager Sanders
• Early 2027: City Council will be presented with and approve a fully balanced FY2028 budget

Current budget cycle information is available at DSM.city/Budget.