Delaware County council members reviewing the 2026 budget were given updated totals showing a $42,893,130 general fund budget request, an estimated ending cash balance for 2025 of $8,218,318, and an estimated operating balance for 2026 of $3,927,268.

Council staff presented revised revenue numbers and said 2025 revenues increased by $700,000 in the most recent update and that 2026 revenues had risen on the latest form-twos. "Current requested budget for '26 is 42,893,130. Taxes and revenue estimated for '26, 38,642,080. Estimated ending cash balance '25 is 8,218,318," a staff member read during the hearing.

Officials calculated that, using a $6,000,000 target operating balance, the council still needed to cut roughly $2,032,732 from the 2026 request to align revenues and reserves. One council member walking through the arithmetic said: "We've got 2,218,318 over that ending balance. Take that off of the difference between the revenue and the estimated budget. We still have 2,032,000 left to cut out of our budget request." That figure does not include "givebacks" (departmental returned funds) that are still being tallied for the adoption phase.

The finance staff provided several line-item updates and noted a $40,000 reimbursement for planning-engineer pay could be realized for 2025 if the county hires an engineer and submits the first pay stub before the reimbursement deadline; that $40,000 had been added into some staff calculations for 2026. The staff gave an updated 2026 revenue figure for general fund operations (including the $40,000 engineering reimbursement) of $515,048 (presentation included rounding and spreadsheet row references); staff later summarized broader totals for county revenues and miscellaneous lines across funds.

Council members asked whether revenue estimates included property-tax levy updates; staff said no levy-adjustment had yet been applied. They also discussed the timing of large insurance payments and tax draws and whether those cash-flow dynamics justified maintaining a higher operating balance.

No final budget adoption or binding vote occurred at the hearing; council members directed staff to continue reconciling form-twos, givebacks, and specific line-item adjustments and to return with updated figures before adoption.