Office of Budget and Evaluation hosts budget explainer session

 Notes

The City of Cincinnati Office of Budget and Evaluation hosted a “Budget Basics” information session over Zoom the evening of Wednesday, April 8, 2026, to explain the city’s budget process to the general public. The meeting had been rescheduled from its original date of March 23 due to technical difficulties.

The Budget Basics session was one component of the initial community engagement phase of the budget process. The session provided an overview of the process by which the City of Cincinnati government creates, deliberates and passes the budget each year, as well as an explanation of key concepts including revenues, budget components and leveraged support.

Budget Director Andrew Dudas presented prepared slides with support from Brian Gay from the Office of Budget and Evaluation and Emily Burns from the Department of City Planning and Engagement.

Budget Process and Schedule

The City of Cincinnati is in the early phases of creating the budget for fiscal year (FY) 2027, which will begin Oct. 1, 2026, and end Sept. 30, 2027. The deadline for City Council to pass the budget is June 30, 2026.

Community Engagement

The budget process begins and ends with community engagement, Dudas said. In addition to the Budget Basics session, the year-round community engagement includes speaking with civic groups and community councils and other educational outreach. The Office of Budget and Evaluation will host the City Budget Game Show, an educational outreach event, at the Neighborhood Summit on Saturday, April 25.

Budget Policy Motion

The city is currently in the Budget Policy Motion Goals and Priorities portion of the budget update timeline, which means that City Council is “receiving information and feedback from a variety of sources” including public hearings, surveys and departmental reports to inform decisions for council’s upcoming annual budget policy motion, Dudas said. The budget policy motion is “council’s direction to the administration for the types of programs, services and activities that they expect to be funded in the upcoming budget,” Dudas said.

Establish Revenue Estimates

The city revenue refers to the total amount of money the city makes from taxes, fines and other sources (explained further below). The revenue is also the total amount of money that the city has available to spend as allocated in the annual budget. To determine how much money will be available to budget in the fiscal year ahead, the Finance Department estimates what the revenue will be with economic models that make predictions about the city tax base and other revenue sources.

Establish Budget Targets by Department

The Office of Budget and Evaluation establishes a budget target for each department. The office first considers a “continuation budget,” rolling forward the cost of current activities and services and accounting for “escalation factors” such as inflation, wage increases and labor contract agreements. The budget targets are then sent to each department.

Departments Request Capital and Operating Budgets

Upon receiving budget targets, each department within the city government submits requested operational and capital budgets to the city manager.

Budget Office Review and City Manager Recommendation to Mayor

The Office of Budget and Evaluation reviews the budget requests from each department, checking for accuracy and ensuring understanding of each budget request, then presents the information to the city manager. The city manager then produces a recommended budget and submits the budget proposal to the mayor in a formal document available to the public.

The city manager’s recommended budget document is expected to be released towards the end of May, likely the week prior to Memorial Day, Dudas said.

Mayor Has 15 Days to Make Changes and Transmits the Budget to Council

Upon receipt from the city manager, the mayor must transmit the budget to City Council in 15 days or less. The mayor may make changes to the budget during that 15-day window, but he is not required to do so. So far in his tenure, Mayor Aftab Pureval has tended to transmit the budget to City Council “immediately upon receipt” from the city manager, Dudas said.

Council Deliberates and Votes on Budget with Proposed Changes

City Council begins deliberations upon the budget and holds hearings through the Budget, Finance and Governance Committee. Council may propose changes and must ultimately vote on both the original budget and all of the proposed changes, Dudas said.

Budget is Approved

The deadline for City Council to pass a budget is June 30, 2026.

Overall Budget Strategy

The city’s goal is to pass a “structurally balanced budget,” which means that all ongoing expenses are covered with ongoing sources of revenue, Dudas said. If ongoing expenditures are covered with one-time revenue sources, the budget would be considered “balanced” but not “structurally balanced.”

The city prioritizes policy to expand the tax base to increase local revenue as a primary component of the budget strategy, Dudas said. Policies aimed at increasing both income and property tax revenue include economic development, neighborhood investment, and programs to recruit and retain high-paying jobs.

Revenues

There are three main types of revenues:

• General Fund Revenue: Revenue from income and property taxes, state shared revenue, and various other local taxes and fees fund the general operations of the city, such as public safety and public services.
• Restricted Fund Revenue: Some revenue generated for a specific purpose is restricted to use for that purpose, such as grant funds.
• Enterprise Fund Revenue: Revenue from city services that operate like businesses, such as the Greater Cincinnati Water Works and the Convention Center, remains within those services.

General Fund Revenue

In FY 2026, the total General Fund Revenue was $569.5 million. Local earnings tax comprised 65.1% of the General Fund Revenue, or $370.8 million.

Operating Budget

In FY 2026, General Fund expenditures totalled $574.5 million. Of the total, 67.5% of expenditures went to public safety. Police received the largest share of funding at about a third of the General Fund expenditures, followed closely by the fire department at 27.9%. Of all General Fund expenditures, 80.9% go to  personnel and benefits.

Cincinnati is projecting a $29.5 million General Fund deficit in FY 2027. Departments have been asked to plan for a 5.1% reduction in their budget requests.

Capital Budget

In FY 2026, 72.6% of the All Funds Capital Budget went to Metropolitan Sewer District capital improvements; the General Capital Fund accounted for 19.2%. Disbursements from the Southern Railway Trust, the fund created after the sale of the Cincinnati Southern Railway to Norfolk Southern, is the largest single source of funding for the General Capital budget, contributing 41.2% of resources.

Expenditures from the railroad sale, known as the Cincy on Track spending plan, may only cover work on existing city infrastructure, Dudas said. The largest single recipient of railway funds in FY 2026 was the Department of Transportation and Engineering.

(For a more detailed breakdown of spending statistics, see the attached presentation.)

Leveraged Support

Leveraged support refers to financial support that the city provides to an external organization for general operating expenses or for a specific program that addresses public need. Organizations that meet eligibility criteria apply for leveraged support funding annually; the application window for FY 2027 closed on April 10. Only existing organizations are eligible for leveraged support; other funding programs exist for new organizations. Applicants will be notified of award decisions in early August.

If you believe anything in these notes is inaccurate, please email us at documenters@signalcincinnati.org with “Correction Request” in the subject line.

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