NO “DECEMBER TO REMEMBER” SHOPPING FOR THE CITY
On the Work Session agenda tonight is the City’s Equipment Replacement Plan (ERP), established in 2000 to plan for and schedule the replacement of all city equipment that has a useful life longer than three years and costs over $5,000.
Much of the ERP consists of vehicle replacement—police cars, trucks, buses, and more. What better time than the Holiday Season to discuss buying new cars! We’re all flooded with holiday commercials, encouraging us to buy cars as Christmas presents. In fact, the ubiquity of the car-as-Christmas-present commercial has prompted both humor and mockery at the notion of big red bows on brand new cars in the driveway. Fortunately, you can see from the full list for FY 2025 below the City isn’t planning a “December to Remember,” with brand new Lexuses for city staff to drive around.
(click on tables to enlarge)
The estimated cost for FY25 equipment replacement is $11.5 million, with around $3.8 million (33%) paid for with grant funds. The total for FY25 is only half of planned replacement costs for 2026 but appears to be on par with planned ERP costs over the following three years.
Like the City’s Capital Improvement Plan (CIP), which was featured in our November 6th Bulletin, the ERP is critical for the sound financial planning of the City and prudent use of taxpayer dollars.
UPCOMING EVENTS – THANKSGIVING!
We are very grateful for your readership of the Billings City Council Bulletin. Your commitment to staying informed about City Council proceedings is incredibly important. And we thank those of you who have shared the Bulletin with others. We receive a continual stream of requests to be signed up for the newsletter, nearly doubling our subscriber count.
We are also very thankful for the feedback. Whether affirmation for our perspective or a polite disagreement and further discussion, we appreciate the dialogue and are encouraged by your engagement.
Once again, thank you for your readership. Together, we are making strides toward building a better, safer, more vibrant Billings for everyone.
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