Dundee approves 2025–26 budget, supplemental transfers and safety levy

Dundee City Council adopted the fiscal year 2025–26 budget, approved a supplemental budget and multiple interfund transfers to close out 2024–25, and confirmed a 65¢ safety levy during a special meeting on a motion that councilors said passed unanimously.

City Administrator Steve presented the packet, explaining the supplemental adjustments and transfers in detail. “Taxes is 29,906,” Steve said while itemizing recent revenue increases, and he listed other new current-year receipts: franchise fees $10,821; charges for services $22,962; fines and forfeitures $12,329; and savings revenue $56,752, for a grand total of $132,770 in additional resources. Steve described how those resources were reallocated in the supplemental budget: “We have allocated that to the administrative finance, it’s 15,000. Court is $3,001, and part of the department is $114,769.”

The council also approved Resolution No. 2025-09 transferring budget line items between funds to align beginning and ending fund balances and to fund capital and reserve accounts. Steve walked through fund-specific changes: a $100,000 small-city allotment grant was recorded in the street CIP fund; equipment reserve, water, and sewer funds received transfers and adjustments; and the sewer CIP beginning balance was adjusted to $790,000 to reflect transfers in.

Council members clarified technical points about appropriation and contingency accounting. One councilor noted that if additional revenue arrives and is not intended to be spent immediately, the city need not appropriate it into specific line items; Steve agreed that unspent revenue typically rolls into ending fund balance and becomes next year’s beginning balance. The council also agreed to an explicit $5,000 allocation within the state shared revenue line for lobbyist services related to the bypass effort after a request from councilors to show that item as a discrete budget line.

Motions and votes: Councilor Johnson moved to approve Resolution No. 2025-08 (supplemental budget) with the street CIP portion removed; Councilor Nelson seconded and the motion passed. Council approved Resolution No. 2025-09 (interfund transfers) with technical corrections to transfer directions and balances, and then approved Resolution No. 2025-10, adopting the 2025–26 budget, making appropriations and imposing property taxes “including the safety levy of 65¢” as stated in the adopted resolution. Councilors indicated the approvals were unanimous.

The council also completed the Dundee Urban Renewal Agency budget adoption in a separate action (see related article). Steve said staff will finalize the numeric corrections in the transfer exhibit before signatures and will post the final adopted documents per the city’s standard procedures.

The council did not specify a date for publication beyond standard posting; follow-up items include ministerial corrections to transfer exhibits and finalizing the signed resolutions.