Goshen council approves 2026 city budget on first reading while officials warn of deep cuts from state law

GOSHEN, Ind. — The Goshen City Council voted to approve the proposed 2026 City of Goshen budget (Ordinance 52-34) on first reading at its Sept. 22 meeting after a detailed presentation from municipal advisers and more than an hour of public comment from local nonprofits and residents.

The council’s vote followed an overview by Amber Nielsen of Baker Tilly, the city’s financial adviser, and extended remarks from Mayor Lydia Lichty (Mayor Lichty’s exact title given in the transcript is Mayor Lichty). Nielsen showed ten-year trends for the city’s largest operating funds and said the proposed 2026 budget keeps those core funds balanced while projecting a modest decline in fund balances if full budgets are spent. “The proposed budget for 2026 is just over $40,000,000,” Nielsen told the council during the presentation.

Why it matters: advisers and the mayor said the budget reflects early planning for the revenue impacts of Senate Enrolled Act 1 (referred to in the meeting as SEA 1 or SB 1). The city expects roughly an $800,000 revenue loss in 2026, similar losses in 2027, and substantially larger reductions beginning in 2028 when local income-tax structures change. Mayor Lichty summarized the risk during the presentation: the bottom “drops out in 2028,” and the city could face a multi‑million‑dollar shortfall without legislative change or new local revenue sources. “In 2028 … we would have more than a $13,000,000 loss in our budget,” the…