Auditing Monroe: What the city's 2026-27 budget lays out

This story begins The Ledger's Auditing Monroe series, which reads the Sevier County city's public financial records. It starts with the city's original budget for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2027, which the city posted on July 18, 2026 after a May 26 public hearing on its tentative budget. ^[11][12]

The budget's figures are planned amounts. Its fund pages show three columns, labeled "2024 actual," "2025 estimated" and "2026 approved budget"; the figures below come from the last column unless stated otherwise. ^[1]

The general fund

The general fund, which pays for most day-to-day city services, totals $1,699,120 in revenue and $1,699,120 in expenditures. ^[1][2]

The revenue side includes a $376,000 transfer from unappropriated fund balance, compared with $157,500 in the column labeled 2025 estimated. ^[1]

The streets department sends $130,000 to the capital projects fund and lists $95,000 in debt-service principal and $32,000 in interest. ^[3]

The budget message says a large portion of the city's Class C road fund revenue is obligated to payments on a 2018 city-wide street project and to money set aside for pavement preservation. It gives the bond payment as $40,000 and the pavement preservation amount as $125,000. ^[4]

Capital projects and utilities

The capital projects fund totals $250,000 in revenue and $250,000 in expenditures, compared with $854,890 in the column labeled 2025 estimated. ^[8]

The electric fund lists $2,055,600 in total operating expense. ^[7]

In the water fund, the column labeled 2025 estimated shows $735,000 from a CIB water project, $1,000,000 in federal water project funding and $1,735,000 in fund balance appropriated. Each of those lines is zero in the coming year's column, which lists $50,000 for water line capital outlay and $10,000 in debt-service interest. ^[9]

The irrigation fund lists $41,000 in debt-service principal and $7,800 in debt service for an irrigation pond project. ^[10]

Projects described in the budget message

The budget message says Monroe was awarded $2,940,000 for secondary water metering: a $2,022,000 grant, a $780,000 loan and $138,000 in up-front cash. It says the project was split into two phases, with Phase I completed in June 2025 and Phase II beginning in October 2025, and that an annual bond payment of $48,000 begins in fiscal 2026 with the final payment due in fiscal 2039. ^[6]

The message says a new well project has begun, with the well site along Canyon Road at about 300 East, and that the new well should be up and working within the upcoming year. ^[6][15]

It says the city received a UDOT Joint Highway grant to help fund resurfacing Main Street from 100 South to 600 South, including curb and sidewalk, with work to begin in July 2028. The budget lists no dollar amount for that project in the coming year. ^[5]

The message also says a water rate increase is warranted because of rising labor, materials and pumping power costs. ^[6]