City Council holds public hearing on fiscal year 2026 budget; $58.7 million in expenditures

At a special City Council meeting, city finance staff presented the proposed fiscal year 2026 budget, showing government-wide revenues of $39,087,540 and government-wide expenditures of $58,735,982, the budget document states.

The proposed general fund revenues for fiscal 2026 are $11,997,719, with sales tax revenues budgeted at $8,110,000 and Nebraska Public Power District (NPPD) lease revenues at $3,590,839. The budget includes capital expenditures of $10,896,000, debt service of $904,489, contingencies of $4,450,000 and a planned transfer of $350,000 from the Cemetery Perpetual Care Fund to the general fund. The budgeted full-time equivalent positions remain at 136, unchanged from fiscal 2025.

Why it matters: Council members pressed staff on reserve levels, revenue assumptions and use of discretionary funds, matters that affect cash flow, future projects and the city's mill levy. Council discussion also touched on how the city administers local LB 840 funds and whether the city should expand eligible uses to include child care and retail adjustments.

Key budget figures and comparisons to fiscal 2025 are contained in the budget packet presented at the hearing: fiscal 2025 budgeted government-wide revenues were listed as $39,984,670 and government-wide expenditures as $54,554,520. Staff said the fiscal 2026 budgeted total operating expenses (excluding debt, capital and contingencies) are $42,485,493 compared with $35,694,212 in fiscal 2025.

During the hearing, a council member noted a $350,000 planned move from the Cemetery Perpetual Care Fund into general-fund operations and asked staff to confirm personnel listings in the packet. A staff speaker identified Matt Carpenter as the department director and Trevor Satter as the supervisor when asked about titles.

Council members spent substantial time on reserve policy and presentation accuracy. One member said the city's policy sets a three-month reserve (approximately 25 percent) and that current cash-on-hand across certain accounts shows a higher percentage than that policy. Staff explained that some funds (for example, ARPA, capital projects and a self-insurance reserve) are permitted to be held outside the operating reserve calculation, which reduces the operating-only reserve to about 42 percent of the operating budget after those exemptions.

On LB 840 funds (referred to in the discussion as "LB 840" or similar), staff said the plan is tightly defined and that certain changes require a vote of plan participants. Staff also said they will meet with stakeholders this week and consider adding child care as an eligible use and possibly increasing retail eligibility thresholds; staff said any change could require an updated vote by plan participants. A staff member told the council, "We're actually working on that, Jerry. And we will have a policy and an application fee."

Council members stressed that while they favor using available cash for projects rather than bonding, they also want policy and practice aligned. A councilmember urged creating a competitive application process for discretionary community funds so monies held for community betterment are distributed rather than accumulated.

The public hearing was closed and the meeting was adjourned by motion. A roll-call vote on the motion to adjourn recorded the following "yes" votes: McKeown, Phillips, Stricker, Good luck, and Solomon. Meeting minutes show the public hearing was the primary agenda item; no formal vote to adopt the budget is recorded in this hearing transcript.

The budget packet contains detailed tables and graphs; council members asked staff to correct a graph where plotted points did not match the underlying numbers. Staff acknowledged a layout error when transferring charts from Excel and indicated it would be corrected.