Oshkosh staff propose 2026 budget that holds levy flat, shifts special funds into general fund and invests in technology

City Manager Rebecca Grill presented the City of Oshkosh's proposed 2026 budget in a council briefing, saying the proposal holds the municipal tax levy at $47,000,000 while reallocating special-revenue fund balances into the general fund and funding targeted capital and technology investments.

"Thanks. I'm Rebecca Grill, the city manager. Here with Julie Thomas and Denise Edwards to talk about the budget," Grill said at the start of the presentation, noting the work staff put into the draft. She told the council that "75% of our budget is salary and benefits," underscoring personnel costs as the largest budget driver.

Why it matters: the draft aims to keep the levy flat while narrowing a previously projected $6.1 million deficit through a mix of cost containment, updated revenue estimates, and one-time fund-balance transfers. The proposal also packages administrative reorganization, new software and citizen-facing platforms, several park and facility capital requests, and major public-safety technology contracts for council consideration.

Key budget moves and context

Levy and municipal revenues: The administration recommends maintaining the same $47,000,000 tax levy used in the prior year. Grill said staff learned shortly before the briefing that the city's municipal services payment — a state payment in lieu of taxes for state-owned facilities that offsets police and fire costs — will be larger than previously estimated. "We were estimating an increase of 300,000, but at noon today, we got notification that we're getting 1,700,000 instead of 1.4," she said, calling the additional roughly $300,000 an unexpected but positive adjustment to revenue projections.

Fund balance and expenditure restraint: The draft assumes a reduced general‑fund draw from fund balance (about $1.1 million, down from $1.5 million in an earlier version) and consolidates several…