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North Little Rock official presents balanced 2026 budget; public safety costs and benefits hikes drive most spending
Summary
City staff presented a balanced proposed 2026 budget showing a $1.7 million (about 2%) rise in revenues and expenditures, large personnel costs for police and fire, higher pension and health-insurance expenses, and limited discretionary funds; a formal budget resolution will be presented at the next meeting.
Speaker 2 presented a balanced proposed budget for the City of North Little Rock for 2026, saying overall revenues and expenditures are up about $1,700,000 (roughly 2%) from the prior year and that major spending remains concentrated in public safety and personnel costs.
"I'm pleased to bring you a balanced budget proposal for the year 2026," Speaker 2 said during the post-budget public hearing, then outlined key revenue and expenditure items, including sales tax (about 8% of general fund revenues, forecasted flat), a property-tax increase described in the hearing as roughly 12–13%, and a timing note that the largest property tax collection typically posts in November.
Speaker 2 described several cost drivers that shape the proposed spending plan: a recently accepted fire union agreement that Speaker 2 said includes a 5% pay increase for firefighters in 2026; the second year of a police contract with 4% increases; rising pension contribution rates for police and fire (noted in the hearing as moving closer to 24.5%); and a roughly 20% increase in the city health-insurance premium. On health insurance, Speaker 2 said the city will move from two plans to a single $1,200-deductible plan, and the proposed employer/employee premium splits change city-paid family coverage from 75% to 65%, with employees facing payroll impacts described in the hearing.
Speaker 2 also said salaries and benefits make up about 79% of general fund expenditures, leaving roughly 21% for other city services. Other fund-level changes mentioned in the presentation included a ~1.5% change in the street fund, a ~4.5% increase in parks (including a one-time $300,000 fund-balance use), and an IT fund increase (~$1.1 million, cited as about 20%) driven by software contracts and maintenance.
Council members pressed staff on several items during the hearing. Speaker 3 asked about the city's reserve requirement and fund balances; Speaker 2 said the restricted reserve is projected at about $22.3 million and that unrestricted/unallocated reserves were estimated in the hearing at roughly $26 million for 2026. Speaker 3 also walked through special appropriations totals and noted much of the city's budget is committed to ongoing obligations.
On local infrastructure, council members raised a $506,100 budget line in the electric department intended as a starting point to restore interstate lighting that has been out for more than a decade. "That half $1,000,000 we have in there is just a budgetary number to get us started," Speaker 5 said, adding full restoration will likely take additional years and multimillion-dollar investment.
Speaker 2 told the council she intends to bring the formal budget resolution at the next council meeting; at that time the council will be able to offer and vote on amendments.
Next steps: staff will present a formal budget resolution at the next council meeting for amendment and vote. Until that resolution is introduced and adopted, amounts in the proposed document are subject to change and the hearing did not produce any final votes on the budget.
