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Papillion officials present FY2025-26 budget; highlight reserves, revenue uncertainty and planned capital projects
Summary
City Administrator Powers summarized the proposed fiscal year 2025–26 budget at a Sept. 2 public hearing, emphasizing strong cash reserves, continued use of sales-tax reserves to offset lost state-shared receipts, modest levy reduction and planned capital projects including Papillion Landing and a Halleck Park road loop.
City Administrator Powers presented a summary of the proposed fiscal year 2025–26 budget during a Sept. 2 public hearing of the Papillion City Council, saying the city remains in "a healthy cash position" despite continuing revenue uncertainty.
Powers told council members the city is using sales-tax reserves to offset reductions tied to state incentive programs that have claimed a portion of voter-approved half-cent sales tax receipts. She said the sales-tax reserve will cover a large share of general-fund revenue this year and that the council's earlier policy to build reserves has allowed the city to navigate recent unknowns.
The budget presentation outlined operating and capital priorities, including completion of the police department remodel and expansion, nearing completion of water-treatment plant upgrades, ongoing design work on Papio Bay ("nearing 60% design completion"), and continued work on the library master plan. Powers said the city will soon seek permission to pursue a construction manager at risk (CMAR) procurement for the next phase of the Papio Bay project.
Powers summarized key revenue and tax items: she said the city anticipates lowering the preliminary property-tax levy to 0.366 per $100 of valuation (based on preliminary valuations), and reported a current city valuation figure of about $4.4 billion. She said the city expects roughly $8,660,000 in general-fund revenue generated from that valuation and that sales-tax reserves are being used again this budget cycle, as they were last year.
On expenditures, Powers said personnel costs make up about 70% of the general fund and that management-exempt employees were budgeted for a 3% increase consistent with existing union contracts. The budget also includes several staffing proposals discussed at the council retreat: three full-time firefighters, a finance manager, a youth services librarian, one additional police officer and a police sergeant to serve as a school resource officer.
Public safety and capital items were highlighted: the budget includes land acquisition funding for a future Fire Station 5 (no site selected), replacement of an ambulance, continued pavement-management funding for street maintenance, traffic signal upgrades and equipment, and $1,120,000 from unrestricted sales-tax reserves to accelerate the reconstruction of the Halleck Park road loop.
Powers said Papillion Landing remains the largest component of the city's outstanding bond debt and that the city maintains an AA1 rating from Moody's. She noted that the recreation program and Papillion Landing-related operations are budgeted separately, and that voter-approved half-cent sales-tax revenue remains restricted to parks-and-recreation purposes by the terms of the ballot language.
At the conclusion of the presentation the council opened the public hearing, heard no proponents or opponents, and closed the hearing. Powers said the formal vote to adopt the budget and set the levy will occur at a subsequent council meeting.
Why it matters: the budget presentation lays out Papillion's plan for city services, capital projects and tax rates for the coming year. Officials emphasized using reserves to maintain operations while monitoring state-level changes that have reduced revenue available to municipalities.
