By: Mike Fong and Laura Solis, Lower Valley Matters
October 11, 2026
This will be a busy week at Granger City Hall. The Council and Mayor will hold their 2027 budget development retreat on Wednesday, October 14th and Thursday, October 15th from 6pm-8:30pm at City Hall. According to a public notice on the city’s Facebook page, any written comment from the public should be submitted by 4pm on Monday, October 12th (tomorrow) via email to fantasia.reyes@grangerwa.org. The retreat is open to the public, but according to the City Clerk, it will not be live-streamed.
Each year, the city adopts a new budget to give the Mayor and city departments authority to spend money on projects and services for the following year. During this process, the council will decide how much funding and what to allocate it for across the city. At the end of the process, the budget has to balance, meaning the projected funding coming in for 2027 must have a spending plan that matches it.
As of today, no agenda or preliminary budget documents have been made available for the upcoming meetings, so we are unable to provide information about what is likely to be discussed. According to the city’s Facebook notice, you can pick up a hard copy of the preliminary budget on Tuesday, October 13 from City Hall if you call ahead of time.
Lower Valley Matters has written about a few budget-related issues that Granger residents, the Mayor, and Council have highlighted during recent meetings. Those articles include the city’s consideration of re-upping its Flock camera contract, potential new taxes for transportation improvements, and exploring lifting a ban on pot shops to generate more tax revenues. You can find those articles linked below.
These and other issues may be what city leaders will consider as they develop the 2027 city budget. The retreat this week kicks off that process. In November, the proposed budget will be published, and residents can participate in hearings that the city will hold on taxes and the budget. Final adoption of the budget will take place in December.
City budgets are often described as an expression of a community’s values. This is an opportunity to weigh in on what your priorities are and how you want your tax dollars spent. Lower Valley Matters will do our best to track the Mayor and Council’s deliberations over the next three months. But if you have a budget issue or priority you’d like to flag or even a question for us to look into, please share your comments either on Facebook or via email to lowervalleymatters@gmail.com.
Flock Cameras:
New Taxes or Fees for Transportation:
Pot shops:
Contact:
lowervalleymatters@gmail.com
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