CHEYENNE, Wyo. — Beginning this week, Cheyenne City Council members will hold work sessions to review the city’s 2024 budget.
The first work session, which provides an overview of the budget in relation to each city department, will take place at 5:30 p.m. today in Council Chambers at the Municipal Building.
A recap of the budget overview work session will be available on Cap City News on Wednesday, May 3.
All other work sessions will take place in Council Chambers and will begin at noon. The sessions are open to the public; however, no public comments will be made.
A full schedule of the work sessions is as follows:
- May 2: Budget Overview
- May 3: Police and Fire
- May 4: Community Recreation and Events
- May 8: Mayor’s Office, Municipal Court, City Clerk, and City Treasurer
- May 9: Public Works
- May 10: Engineering, Planning and Development and Downtown Development Authority
- May 11: Attorney’s Office, Human Resources, Compliance/IT and Youth Alternatives
Meetings are available via Zoom to watch. A link for all work sessions is available below and on the city’s Electronic Conference Meeting web page at www.cheyennecity.org/ecm. The city will provide a livestream on Facebook and Spectrum’s local access Channel 192.
City departments are required to update their strategic goals, objectives and anticipated budget changes for the next fiscal year. Budget planning begins in January of each year, and can be divided into the various stages:
- The governing body provides policy direction, which is then used to establish budget priorities and goals.
- The city treasurer and mayor complete revenue forecasting to determine funds available to expend
- Department directors provide budget worksheets containing fund requests and justifications.
- The city treasurer compiles new budget requests and submits to the mayor
- Meetings are held between the mayor, city treasurer and department directors to facilitate final funding decisions
- The proposed budget is presented to the City Council and community members by May 1. Work sessions are held the first two weeks in May with the City Council, mayor and department directors.
- The governing body reviews the budget and seeks public input at City Council meetings throughout May and June
- The final budget is adopted prior to the third Thursday in June and presented to citizens.
A timeline of the budget approval process can be viewed below:
- May 1: 2024 budget is presented to the City Council.
- May 2–May 11: Council holds public work sessions.
- May 8: First reading of the 2024 budget will take place during the council’s meeting. It will then be referred to the Committee of the Whole.
- May 17: The Committee of the Whole deliberates the proposed budget.
- May 22: Second reading of the 2024 budget takes place, then returns to the Committee of the Whole
- May 27: Notice of public hearing will be published in local newspapers, along with a budget summary
- June 7: The Committee of the Whole deliberates the budget again.
- June 12: A public hearing and the third reading of the 2024 budget take place during the council’s meeting. The budget must be approved within 24 hours of the conclusion of the public hearing.
- June 16: The clerk submits the Budget Ordinance to a newspaper for publication on Friday, June 23
The 2024 budget, in full, can be accessed below:
