Lawton City Council approves 2024-2025 budget

Lawton has a new budget.

City Council members, meeting in special session, set the new budget into place Monday, well in advance of the state requirement that specifies a new budget must be finalized seven days before the fiscal year begins. For Lawton, that is July 1, for a budget year that runs through June 30.

The good news for residents is that next year’s budget won’t include a utility rate increase. Council members actually made that decision last week, directing city staff to remove the 4.9 percent utility rate increase for water, sewer and refuse that had been calculated into the budget. City code specifies that utility rates automatically increase each year by the same percentage change of the Consumer Price Index, unless the council specifically votes to suspend it. Council members took that action last week, saying they didn’t want to tax city utility customers with another price increase and directing city administrators to adjust the budget accordingly.

The value of that 4.9 percent increase was an additional $2.87 million in new revenue, finance officials estimated. For residential water customers, the difference on their monthly bills would have ranged from $2.97 more for base level users to $4.29 more for those who use 6,000 gallons of water a month. Ward 8 Councilman/Mayor Pro Tem Randy Warren said he was glad city staff was able to calculate the budget without a utility rate increase.

“That way, citizens can trust if we raise it (utility rates), we do need to raise it,” he said.

Mayor Stan Booker said what the budget does include is $10 million for streets and materials, higher than the $4.5 million included in this year’s budget. This year’s streets and materials budget also was significantly higher than it has been in past years, reflecting the council’s determination to upgrade city streets, members have said. Additional attention also will be paid to neighborhoods and litter control, Booker said.

Next year’s budget includes a $93.1 million General Fund, with $36.296 million expected in the Enterprise Fund (utility revenue) and $98.36 million in the Capital Improvements Program.