City manager frames 10‑year financial plan, says pension costs should decline after 2034

City Manager Mr. Gibbons told the Garden City council on March 2 that the administration is developing a 10‑year financial plan to steady services while reducing legacy costs.

"We are currently operating about 3% below [budget], by about a million," Gibbons said, describing the draft 2026–27 departmental requests as the first step in building an overall city budget. He emphasized that the packet before the council represented department requests, not final allocations.

Gibbons walked council through actuarial charts showing pension contributions rising through the mid‑to‑late 2030s before dropping as the pension approaches 100% funding. "Once a pension reaches 100% funded ... the system begins to take care of itself," he said, adding that retiree‑health liabilities have declined (he noted a drop from about $121 million in 2020 to roughly $65 million today).

The manager flagged Michigan revenue constraints — including the impacts of Proposition A and the Headley amendment — that limit how quickly taxable value can grow even when market values rise, which he said has reduced the pool of locally available revenue. He said the city receives roughly $11 million in general operating tax revenue and about $2 million from the public‑safety millage; police and fire expenses alone exceed $13 million.

Gibbons urged department heads to identify staffing needs and to prioritize capital projects that reduce long‑term operating costs. He also said the city is better positioned this year than last: projected use of fund balance has decreased from more than $2.5 million last year to a figure in the low hundreds of thousands in the current draft.

Council members pressed for details about timing, and Gibbons acknowledged the council could choose to accelerate contributions to the pension to reach full funding sooner but said the current path shows a decline in contributions later in the decade.

The council will continue department‑level budget hearings over the coming weeks with the goal of presenting a proposed budget for consideration before April 1.