Mobile City Council reviews proposed FY2026 budget with new stormwater department and fleet changes

Mobile City Council heard a presentation on the proposed fiscal year 2026 budget that consolidates convention-center revenues into the general fund, creates a new stormwater department, and changes how the city budgets for vehicles and fleet operations.

Scott Collins, finance director, told the council the FY2026 budget combines the general fund, capital improvements and the enterprise funds supported by the general fund, and folds what had been a stand-alone convention-center budget back into the general fund because the center’s operations are now contracted to OVG. “Everything that was convention center sales tax has made its way back to the general fund,” Collins said.

Collins presented line-by-line projections and cash-position figures: a projected October 1 general fund operating balance of about $102,000,000, a planned transfer-in from operating of $29,000,009.91 (which Collins said he expects to be spent at a lower actual rate — closer to $23,000,000 — by year-end) and a projected September 30, 2026 general fund operating balance of roughly $72,008,691. The presentation also shows an ordinance-required reserve of about $64,455,195 and a roughly $9,000,000 employee health-insurance reserve.

Why it matters: the budget packages several structural changes that affect how revenue and expenses will be tracked and spent. Council members pressed staff on whether the accounting changes preserve long-term replacement funding for vehicles and ensure capital projects do not lapse unnoticed.

Major elements of the proposal

- Stormwater: The budget creates a new stormwater department with $5,000,000 of new operating resources. Collins said “roughly about a million dollars of that is allocated or considered allocated toward a drainage system study,” and the remaining funds (about $4,000,000) are intended for ditch maintenance, clearing, staff work or contracts to…