City economic-development staff reported an overall decrease in the department's baseline budget and described efforts to shift more activities onto non-general-fund revenue streams.

Staff said the department's draft shows an 8% year-over-year decrease driven in part by moving personal-service and professional-fee costs into department-managed NROs (non-reverting operating funds) and by charging project-specific fees. Staff told council the county provides an interlocal contribution of $45,000 a year that supports economic-development work; within that allocation the county approved an extra $5,000 this year to support the department's subscription to marketing/lead software (referred to as "closer.ai" in the discussion). Staff said the city also shares that software access with VMI for tourism and outreach purposes.

The department described the routine use of legal, accounting and design consultants under contracts that are paid from NROs for specific projects (for example, development agreements and multi-family projects). Staff said moving recurring costs to NROs helps preserve the property-tax levy for core operations.