Raleigh council unanimously adopts FY26 budget; council declines firefighter separation allowance after survey

The Raleigh City Council on Wednesday unanimously approved the fiscal year 2026 budget, adopting multi‑percent salary increases and a slate of service and capital investments while leaving out a proposed firefighter separation allowance after staff presented survey results showing most survey respondents opposed trading current pay for the benefit.

The budget was moved for approval by Councilor Branch and adopted without recorded opposition, after a work session in which Budget and Management Services Director Sadia Sitar and Human Resources Director Charnell Jones presented follow‑up data requested by council. Assistant City Manager Evan Raleigh and transit and department staff answered questions about service changes and cost drivers.

The separation allowance for uniformed fire personnel was not added to the adopted budget. Human Resources Director Charnell Jones told council that the survey sent to uniformed firefighters produced 509 responses. In that survey 67% of respondents said they were not willing to accept a general wage increase of 2.2% instead of an 11% increase in order to fund a separation allowance; 33% said they would be willing to accept the lower increase. When asked whether they would accept firefighter pay being lower than market in future years to fund a separation allowance, 72% said no and 28% said yes. "Based on the individuals that responded to that survey, at this time, 67% said no," Jones said.

Several council members described the separation allowance as a difficult topic. Councilor Silva said she had listened and reviewed materials from the Raleigh Professional Firefighters Association but could not find a path forward to support the proposal in this budget cycle. Councilor Patton said she continued to support the benefit but recognized the votes were not there after recent discussions.

Council members and staff highlighted key investments included in the approved FY26 package. Assistant City Manager Michael Moore and transit staff said about $5.5 million in service enhancements are included for Wake Transit plan items, including increased service on Capital Boulevard and new service on Falls of Neuse and Atlantic. Transit staff noted the system recently returned to collecting fares and that the city has seen a large uptake in low‑income and reduced‑fare programs; those factors plus inflationary increases for the city's operator contributed to the roughly 15% year‑over‑year increase in the transit budget.

Councilors and staff outlined other items contained in the budget or noted in the work session: expanded weekend paratransit hours; projected bus ridership of more than 6,000,000 trips next year; approximately $3 million for watershed protection; approximately $3 million for homelessness interventions; investments in accessible pedestrian signals; updates to the street design manual; site improvements at Buffalo Road athletic facilities; continued work on the Harris Creek interceptor project; and planning work on Little River for future water supply. The Convention Center staff also provided a $10,000 community grant to Fourth Ward event organizers, and staff estimated total city monetary and in‑kind support for a recent Fourth Ward recognition event at roughly $30,000 in value.

Councilors also reviewed workers' compensation claim data provided as a follow up. Staff told council the briefing memo lists claims by department and the percent of claims relative to budgeted positions; councilors noted that police, solid waste services, fire and parks showed the highest percentages of claims when adjusted for department size. Staff said the dataset includes reported claims and first‑aid reports and that claims ultimately denied are still included in the listing.

Mayor Burton and other members praised the budget staff for assembling a package that provides substantial employee increases without a tax increase. "There are a lot of citizens and residents who are very complimentary of the city manager and the budget staff for being able to find a way to do, you know, 9 to 11% increases without raising taxes," Mayor Burton said. Councilor Branch moved approval of the FY26 budget; the motion carried by unanimous passage at the work session and the mayor signed required adoption documents before adjournment.

Staff indicated several follow‑up items will be circulated, including benefits benchmarking used by the city's benefits broker and additional information on Nash Square and other parks concerns that council requested. Councilors also signaled interest in continuing to explore ways to acknowledge firefighting risks outside of the separation allowance model presented this year.