Despite budget woes at the statewide level and oil companies cutting back with the decrease in oil production, the City of Valdez budget is healthy and City Administration is continuing to hire employees and increase spending. The City Budget is funded by local property tax. Payments from the oil industry comprise the lions share of the local government budget.

The Valdez interim City Manager proposed, and the City Council approved, additional staffing for the City of Valdez less than a year ago and now current City Manager Dennis Ragsdale is proposing to add positions to the management team at the City. In 2014 the City of Valdez budget included just over 10 million dollars for personnel costs. More than 14 million dollars in personnel costs are projected in the current 2017 budget. “The City currently has 11 direct reports to me”, said Ragsdale. “That’s really an unmanageable amount of people”. In addition to the proposal to hire a Public Services Administrator and a Community Development Administrator to report directly to the City Manager and assist with management of department heads, Ragsdale is proposing to hire a Code Enforcement Officer, a Full-time Events Coordinator and an Economic Development Coordinator to replace a consultant currently used by the city.