Columbus City Council adopts FY2025–26 budget components and sets property tax hearing for Sept. 18

The Columbus City Council on Sept. 2 approved key components of the city’s FY2025–26 budget and set a joint property tax hearing for Sept. 18, 2025, with a property tax asking of $7,562,660.83.

Council members voted, by voice, to adopt the committee-recommended fee schedule, pay plan and capital improvement plan following presentations from the Committee of the Whole. The council also adopted the committee’s broader budget recommendation and scheduled the public hearing on the property tax asking and levy for Sept. 18.

"When you take a $75,000,000 operating budget and have $200,000 in what you would call a positive balance. It's not much," Mayor Boeckley said, summarizing the narrow margin city staff found while assembling the budget. He said that, after weighing options, he supported the council’s recommended figures and urged fiscal stewardship of citizens’ dollars.

Councilman Jablonski commended the mayor’s transparency in the budget process, saying officials made the budget available to the public in advance of the meeting even though attendance at committee sessions was low. "I do wanna commend the mayor. The mayor went way out of his way to make this budget available to the public," Jablonski said.

The council’s actions at the Sept. 2 meeting included: adoption of the fee schedule; adoption of the pay plan; adoption of the capital improvement plan; adoption of the budget recommendation; and setting the property tax hearing and asking amount at $7,562,660.83. These items were passed by voice vote during the meeting; the record does not include individual roll-call tallies.

Next steps: The city will hold the joint public property tax hearing on Sept. 18, 2025, at which residents may comment on the property tax asking and any associated levy proposals. Additional budget steps and the timing of any final tax levy approvals will follow the hearing and statutory posting requirements.