Tulsa budget committee details FY26 technical changes, shifts reserve to 9.9% to free $344,100

Tulsa’s budget committee spent its meeting reviewing a technical-change memorandum for the proposed fiscal year 2026 budget, focusing on accounting corrections, revenue updates and a one‑time adjustment to the general fund operating reserve.

The committee agreed to set the emergency operating reserve at 9.9% of estimated general fund revenues instead of 10%, a change staff said would free about $344,100 in available funds for FY26. Staff and council members framed that reduction as a narrowly scoped, fiscal-technical move to cover identified one‑time uses rather than a permanent policy shift in reserve policy.

Why it matters: Committee members said the reserve adjustment is intended to cover a set of technical corrections and targeted restorations identified in a blue‑highlighted technical changes list (grant funding corrections, department reclassifications and a small number of program restorations). Finance staff told the committee that the same adjustments are tied to data pulled from multiple payroll and grants systems and that several grant‑funded positions had been mistakenly left in the general fund budget tables.

Key facts and numbers discussed - Staff said one set of corrections reflected grant‑funded positions that had been left in the general fund calculation; one example in police was described as roughly $165,000. The memo identifies multiple similar corrections across departments. - Reducing the operating reserve from 10% to 9.9% was presented as returning about $344,100 to available fund balance for FY26. - Special‑events fee adjustments in the technical memo were described as reducing anticipated special‑permit revenue by about $326,000 compared with an earlier projection; staff said the change reflected updated department estimates. - Staff noted an outstanding FEMA reimbursement that could materially affect the reserve; finance staff estimated an approximate FEMA receivable of about $12 million that, if realized and allocated to the reserve, would push the reserve back above 10%.

Other budget items the committee reviewed included: reassigning a position from Planning and Neighborhoods to Resilience and Equity (described as net‑neutral), restorations for park mowing cycles and River Parks maintenance, various timing adjustments for grant‑funded positions, and a list of revenue items (insurance recovery, parking fee changes, right‑of‑way fees) that remain estimates.

Process and next steps: Committee members said the technical‑change memo would be incorporated into the budget ordinance as an exhibit and brought forward with motion language at the council meeting later the same day; no formal vote on the ordinance or on the technical changes was recorded during the committee discussion. Staff emphasized the amounts in the technical changes are estimates and that some revenue items (parking changes, insurance recoveries) remain uncertain and could require later budget amendments.

Meeting context: Council members repeatedly cautioned the committee that the FY26 budget as presented was a working document and could change before final adoption. Several council members asked staff to confirm that the exhibit language attached to the ordinance would identify the intended uses of restored dollars to make legislative intent explicit.

Ending: The committee concluded its review of the highlighted technical changes and instructed staff to draft motion language that would incorporate the technical‑change memo into the ordinance when the body takes final action later in the day. No formal votes were taken in the committee meeting.