Council narrows proposed 2026 tax increase after state review of budget

City finance staff told the council on Sept. 21 that the introduced 2026 budget required resubmission to the state, which delayed adoption and changed the revenue the city may apply to the current year's budget. The staff presentation said the budget had been introduced in June but the state asked the city to redo portions tied to a bulk sale of properties and other items; that process reduced an initial 37¢ tax-rate increase to about 16–18¢. "We were tasked to bring down that 37¢ to 0.5 of it," the finance staff said in explaining the reduction and the need to rework revenue assumptions.

The staff described roughly $1.7 million in anticipated revenue that the state determined the city could not fully use in 2026; the remainder will be held as fund balance for next year (staff estimated a difference of about $280,000). Officials said a public hearing is scheduled Friday at 10:00 a.m. with the county to set the tax rate and allow the tax-collection software to upload billing information. Council members did not request additional changes at the meeting; staff said they did "everything we could within our powers" to lower the proposed increase and will proceed with the hearing and subsequent billing steps.