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Jackson council reviews proposed 2026–27 budget, staff highlight police staffing, lead line work and $9.6M wastewater project
Summary
At a May 5 budget workshop, Jackson City staff presented a proposed FY2026–27 budget that keeps most millages steady while reducing debt millages, outlines investments in public safety radios and staffing, accelerates lead-service-line work and budgets roughly $9.6 million to rehabilitate wastewater digesters.
Jackson City on May 5 held a public hearing and budget workshop on the proposed fiscal year 2026–27 budget, during which staff presented fiscal trends, departmental priorities and several major capital projects the city plans to fund or phase in.
City staff told the council the city’s taxable value rose to about $867,000,000 for 2026 and that Michigan’s inflation cap was set at 2.7%, a factor used in the calculations driving the tax base projections. The proposed package would leave general operating and public improvement millages the same while reducing a set of debt-related millages, producing an overall millage decrease of just over 1 mill (about 5.87% relative to the prior year), staff said.
“The proposed budget reflects the city’s continued financial stability,” a city staff presenter said, noting a projected fund balance of about 38.5% at the end of the current fiscal year and 30.3% at the end of FY27 — figures staff said are consistent with the city’s fund-balance policy.
Public safety and utilities were the most discussed line items. Police Chief Furrows said the department is authorized for 52 sworn officers and currently has 50 on staff. “Personnel costs equate to probably about 86% of our overall budget,” he said, and the department has budgeted for both retention incentives and replacement radios with encryption to comply with a June 2027 state requirement.
The fire department advised the council that it responded to a record roughly 6,400 calls in 2026 and is seeking a modest personnel increase (one firefighter) and a budget increase of about 8.64% to sustain staffing, training and emergency response readiness.
Infrastructure and utilities drew several substantial requests. Public Works briefed the council on ongoing lead service‑line replacements (staff said crews are replacing about 20–30 services per month and that an active contract will replace roughly 800 services under the current program) and on projects at city plants. DPW staff described the need to clean a water‑treatment lagoon this year (budgeted around $1,000,000) and identified a digester rehabilitation at the wastewater plant as a major capital item: “This is a total of, in about $9,600,000,” staff told the council, describing work to clean and coat digester walls, replace lids, install new mixing and sludge pumps, heat exchangers, gas collection equipment and updated controls.
Engineering staff noted that construction spending will drop from the COVID-era grant peak but that about 25 projects and roughly $22 million in construction remain planned for the coming year, and that lead replacements and other state- and grant-driven programs will continue to affect the capital program.
Community development staff reported progress on the city’s “100 Homes” program and on Brownfield and housing grants, noting the HCDF Mich grant (~$880,000) and an EPA Brownfield assessment grant (~$500,000) had been used for site assessments and new housing units.
Council and staff agreed the end of one-time federal resources will require careful prioritization. The city manager and finance staff framed the budget as deliberately conservative — a balanced, policy‑consistent plan intended to preserve essential services while phasing out reliance on one-time dollars.
Next steps: the council kept the workshop format open for additional discussion; staff flagged a sewer‑contract item scheduled for a May 19 council meeting and said detailed budget adoption steps would follow the workshop and further line‑item review.
