Davenport council reviews $67.9 million FY2026 capital plan, highlights streets, sewers and federal grants

Davenport City staff on Feb. 8 presented a proposed fiscal year 2026 capital budget that would fund $67.9 million in Year 1 of a six‑year capital improvement program and a $2.02 billion six‑year projection largely driven by grant awards and infrastructure projects.

City staff member Basha Gerlach opened the presentation, saying the budget is a “balanced budget that complies with financial policies and liquidity targets” and that the overall fiscal 2026 budget is about $271,500,000, a roughly 12 percent increase driven mostly by a 42 percent rise in capital spending tied to additional grant funding.

The budget packet and staff presentation emphasized three funding sources that support the CIP: the debt service levy (currently $2.05 per $1,000 taxable valuation and generating about $11.2 million for debt payments), local option sales tax (LOST) revenues budgeted conservatively at about $18.3 million in FY2026, and the road use tax fund (which returned about $14.38 million in FY2024). Gerlach noted Iowa Code limits local government debt to 5 percent of assessed valuation and reported assessed valuations of about $8.5 billion, which staff said translates to a statutory borrowing cap roughly in the $424 million range and a remaining capacity of about $219 million as described in the presentation.

Nut graf: The CIP proposal front‑loads repairs to streets and the sewer collection system and relies heavily on state and federal grants to advance large projects that the city could not fund from local dollars alone. Staff said roughly 74 percent of Year 1 spending is tied to the street network and sewer collection system, and highlighted several projects that would be paired with federal or state grant matches.

Key numbers and funding context

- Year 1 (FY2026) CIP: $67.9 million; six‑year projection: about $2.02 billion. - Debt service levy: $2.05 per $1,000; debt service fund cash balance roughly $26 million, projected near $30 million by the end of FY2025. - Local option sales tax: budgeted $18.3 million for…