North Platte presents conservative 2025–26 budget plan; city proposes modest tax growth while lowering levy

City of North Platte staff presented the proposed 2025–26 budget at a Sept. 2 council budget work session, recommending a modest increase in the tax request while projecting a lower overall levy and maintaining substantial cash reserves.

Lane (finance staff member) told the council the city's proposed general fund budget is $38,233,000 for fiscal 2026, an increase of about 2.86% from the prior year, and said the city currently expects to finish the 2025 fiscal year about $600,000 to $700,000 below budgeted spending while revenues are running roughly $500,000 above projections.

The presentation said the city expects an end-of-year cash reserve of $16,927,000 for 2025, which includes a $4,000,000 beginning cash balance for the 2026 budget. Staff proposed an approach that takes mostly allowable growth on new property rather than seeking the maximum increase available under recent state law changes; the recommendation was characterized as a conservative scenario that would lower the city's levy by roughly 1.23% from last year.

Why it matters: the budget approach affects property taxpayers, service levels and the city's ability to respond to unexpected expenses. Staff emphasized that changes the Nebraska Legislature adopted this year alter how cities may seek tax increases and that amounts not requested in a given year generally cannot be reclaimed in later years under the current rules.

Key figures and drivers

- Proposed general fund: $38,233,000 (approx. 2.86% increase). - Prior budgets referenced by staff: 2024 budget $35,500,000; 2025 budget $37,170,000. - Projected near-term surplus: roughly $1 million compared with prior budgeted totals. - Cash reserve (end of fiscal 2025): $16,927,000 (includes $4,000,000 beginning balance). - Staff noted a 10-year decline in the city's levy of about 20.55%.

Staff named specific cost drivers: state-mandated increases to city contributions for police and fire pensions that add roughly $100,000 to the police budget and about $135,000 to the fire budget; increased landfill costs including a county-per-ton fee estimated at about $45,000—6,000 and a state landfill fee increase (from $1.15 to $2.35 per ton) that staff estimated will raise roughly $57,000 in costs to be passed through to users. Staff also reported a roughly $57,000 decrease in state aid in the proposed budget.

Budget scenarios and state rule changes

Staff presented multiple scenarios labeled Option 0 through Option 3 to show how different tax-request choices play out over coming years under the new state framework. The new rules allow a 2% growth allowance without a postcard (public) hearing and an inflation index that staff said can be substantially higher than consumer CPI. Lane said the state's government-price index this year was 5.17%, which combined with the 2% growth allowance could have produced a much larger tax request (staff's Option 3).

Brandon (staff member) described the recommended Option 1 as a conservative path that mainly captures growth from newly built property (about $150,000 of the proposed tax ask on new property, with roughly $30,000 on other valuation growth) and reduces the levy while attempting to preserve long-term capacity to respond to emergencies.

Council reaction and concerns

Councilmembers asked how the state landfill fee is used; staff said the large portion of that fee flows into an integrated solid-waste management cash fund to cover environmental responses. Councilmembers also discussed the risk that under the new rules some jurisdictions might seek the maximum allowable increases now to preserve future headroom; staff and several councilors said that outcome would be contrary to the stated legislative intent.

Staffing and wages

Staff said most departments saw no staffing increases for the coming year. The budget includes a senior accountant position in administration/finance, several part-time positions in parks and planned part-time and potential full-time positions at the recreation center as programming expands. The budget also assumes a 2.75% cost-of-living adjustment for wages, tied to the Kansas City-region CPI reported in April (2.7%), rounded to the nearest quarter point per union agreements.

Next steps

The budget will return to the council for formal consideration at the regular meeting on Sept. 16. At the Sept. 2 session staff asked whether a second work session scheduled for Sept. 4 was needed; the council later announced that meeting would be canceled.

Ending

Council members and staff thanked department personnel for budgetary work. Staff reiterated that further questions could be directed to Lane or other finance staff before the Sept. 16 meeting.