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Summit County Council approves 2025 amendments and adopts $100.5M operating budget for 2026
Summary
Council approved 2025 budget amendments that include a $300,000 indigent defense increase and grant adjustments to Search and Rescue, and adopted the 2026 operating budget of approximately $100.5 million; councilors pressed staff on forecasting, capital carryovers and the restricted emergency services sales tax.
The Summit County Council held a series of public hearings and voted to approve 2025 budget amendments and to adopt the 2026 operating budget. Matt Levitt, the staff presenter, summarized the amendments and the proposed 2026 budget and answered council questions.
Levitt told the council the 2025 amendments include roughly $300,000 for indigent defense because an aggravated murder defendant was declared indigent, and roughly $185,000 in search-and-rescue adjustments that reflect grant receipts and associated expense recognition. Levitt emphasized the amendments do not increase overall fund-level budgets but move funds between programs where unanticipated events required it: "We're just notifying the council of switching moving money between programs," he said.
On the 2026 budget, Levitt described revenue sources — sales taxes, property taxes, grants, fines and fees — and said about one-third of the operating budget goes to public safety. He noted the county expects a full year of revenue from a voter-approved emergency services sales tax, which staff estimated will add roughly $17 million but is restricted to specific emergency-services purposes. Councilors pressed for clearer year-to-year forecasting and expressed concern that some exhibits attached to the resolution did not match slides presented; staff said an exhibit would be recast to conform to the presentation.
Council debate covered capital carryovers and special-revenue funds (transient room tax and other funds) that are reported separately from operations; staff warned that double-counting can occur when transfers between funds are aggregated. After discussion, the council voted to adopt the 2026 operating budget (referred to in the packet as resolution 2025-32). The motion passed on a motion by Chris with a second by Megan. Earlier, council also approved the 2025 amendments (resolution 2025-31) on a motion that included recasting exhibit A; Candace registered an abstention on that vote because Search and Rescue was discussed.
