Brookings council reviews 2026 budget; general fund rises about $1 million while city uses conservative revenue assumptions

Brookings city staff presented the first budget workshop on the proposed 2026 operating budget and outside-agency funding, outlining a balanced general fund that includes roughly $1 million more in spending than the 2025 adopted budget and a modest overall decrease of about $650,000 in the city’s total budget compared with 2025.

Assistant City Manager Samantha Beckman and Finance Director Ashley Wrench told the City Council that the 2026 budget reflects a 3% sales-tax growth estimate and a 5% increase in property-tax revenue; staff said total spending reductions are driven mainly by fewer one-time enterprise and CIP projects carried forward from 2025. “We are budgeting this 3% increase over 2025’s budget,” Beckman said, adding the budget uses multi-year averages and other conservative assumptions to hold spending to sustainable levels.

The presentation emphasized that the general fund is the city’s primary operating fund and will absorb most personnel- and inflation-driven cost increases. “The general fund increase is really having to do with staffing increases, so wages and training in there, as well as the BMU water…