Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Municipal Budget topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Carbondale council debates FY2026 budget gaps, agrees to staff—ommunity-grant cuts
Summary
Council reviewed the proposed FY2026 budget and five-year CIP, discussed structural deficits and agency grants, and settled on staff recommendation to apply an across-the-board reduction (staff'0% scenario) to community agency grants while staff prepares a final budget.
City staff presented the proposed fiscal year 2026 budget and five-year community investment program (CIP) on April 10. The staff presentation described a budget window covering May 1, 2025, through April 30, 2026, and noted an overall set of fiscal pressures, including delayed capital projects and lower shared revenue projections from the state.
Council members and attendees focused substantial discussion on four themes: deficit management across funds, the condition of specialty municipal funds (notably the parking fund and the rental-properties fund), the proposed reductions to community agency grants, and the operational cost of the new Southern Illinois Multimodal Station (SIMS) facility.
Councilmember Doherty asked for details on several funds and highlighted multi-year deficits: the parking fund showed a projected negative balance (about $416,000), and the rental-properties fund carried an approximately $1,198,000 negative balance in the draft documents. Staff explained pandemic-era enforcement reductions, changes in parking demand around campus and the temporary loss of revenue from an Amtrak lot. For rental properties, staff said aging city-owned buildings and limited tenant demand contributed to the deficit and that some properties may be candidates for demolition or redevelopment.
Councilmembers also pressed on community-agency funding. Staff presented three reference amounts during the discussion: total awards at FY2024 levels ($292,000), staff recommended funding ($330,912), and a proposed across-the-board 20% cut that would result in roughly $327,544 available to distribute. Councilmembers debated whether to revert to FY2024 levels, accept staff recommendations, or adopt a hybrid approach that prioritizes long-standing agencies. After extended discussion, the council coalesced around the staff recommendation to keep a capped total in roughly the $327,000—10 range (staff had modeled $330,912), applying reductions across organizations with limited carve-outs to preserve long-standing relationships where possible; council gave staff direction to finalize award allocations and fold the chosen grants figure into the final adopted budget on April 24.
Other budget questions raised by council included the unspent and shifted CIP projects (several grants and planned projects were delayed, creating a multi-million-dollar timing variance), SIMS operating costs (first-year operating cost estimated at $290,000 in the draft), and police mental-health advocate staffing (the third advocate position budgeted in FY2025 became vacant; staff intends to fill it subject to cost-sharing conversations with SIH).
Several citizens and stakeholders urged prioritizing downtown greenways, sidewalk and beautification projects and asked the council to consider targeted investment strategies that prioritize projects that connect neighborhoods to downtown. Public commenters urged transparency in draft circulation for stakeholders and recommended additional outreach on housing-related ordinances.
Council gave staff direction to revise the proposed budget consistent with the council discussion and to prepare a final budget ordinance for adoption on April 24, 2025. There was no final adoption at the April 10 meeting; the council set policy direction and budget caps for staff to implement.
