OPENPUBLICA · PUBLIC MEETING RECORD
Record of Proceedings

Kearney City Council Public Hearings on FY2026-2027 Budget and Property Tax Request - September 9, 2026

City Council — Wednesday, September 9, 2026
BodyKearney, Nebraska
SessionCity Council
DateWednesday, September 9, 2026
StatusNEW · FILED
Video Record
0:00 / 17:40

Transcript — Verbatim
0:11

Mayor Nicolette.

0:12

Here.

0:12

Bush Cutter.

0:14

More.

0:14

Air Schmidt.

0:15

Here.

0:15

Coxiapolis.

0:16

Here.

0:18

Okay.

0:19

If I decided that.

0:20

Okay.

0:20

Never mind.

0:21

Sorry.

0:21

I'm roll call carries.

0:24

Yeah, yeah.

0:25

Sorry.

0:25

I just I didn't hit enough last time.

0:27

Maybe we're done.

0:28

No, no, I don't know why I was.

0:29

You are an optimistic young woman.

0:32

Agenda item three is to conduct a public hearing on the City of Kearney budget for the 2026-2023 fiscal year.

0:40

This item is for discussion purposes and will not be voted on until the September 22nd council meeting.

0:46

Brian Schultz.

0:49

Good evening, everybody.

0:58

All right.

0:58

So I got a bit of an agenda here tonight just to kind of go over this.

1:02

It'll be really similar to what we uh showcased a few weeks ago.

1:05

So I'm going to kind of go over some differences from what we kind of previously talked about, so you guys can understand that without having to rehash all of it.

1:13

Peggy and I were talking.

1:14

I uh thought I was gonna have them in the opposite order, so we will skip the first few slides and then circle back on those.

1:21

So uh general fund.

1:23

I'll kind of get over that here first and foremost.

1:26

So um where we're at on our revenues, we're again we're just uh just over 40 million for the upcoming year.

1:34

And again, kind of what makes those up.

1:36

I expanded a little bit uh as we were kind of talking the others and transfers.

1:41

Uh it wasn't very apparent on my last slide, but those are primarily made up of the NPPD at lease payments that we already do continue to get and transfer some other funds.

1:49

So it looked weird to just say like I have a random 11 million dollar plug, so I wanted you to know kind of what makes up that number there.

1:57

Um, and then we did kind of beef up our licenses and permits just a little bit um due to some comprehensive fee schedule changes, which we'll get into here in a little bit.

2:06

Um since I know you all read the 808-page PDF that we sent you.

2:12

Um I'm working on skinnying that up a little bit.

2:16

Uh, do have some screenshots from out of that document um that will kind of help showcase again pie chart version of what it is that makes up our revenue stream as they're coming in across the board.

2:28

Again, primarily taxes, and then we have the transfers uh coming in.

2:33

Again, we kind of have uh the property taxes, just kind of want to showcase again where that money is going to for next year.

2:40

Again, primarily most of it's into general fund.

2:43

We do have our public safety uh bonds, which taking up 16% of it.

2:47

So I wanted to make sure you guys can see where our property taxes are going.

2:52

We do have our distribution.

2:54

Uh we are roughly 11% based on the most current year.

2:58

Unfortunately, we do not have the um new numbers for this upcoming year as of yet.

3:03

We won't have that stuff until they ratify everything towards the end of October, primarily.

3:08

And so once we do kind of have what everybody's new levies look like and the percentages, uh, we will be sure to share that with you guys after everything gets ratified.

3:17

Going into the expenses, we are just under 41 million um for our expenses again.

3:24

That's a 1.7.

3:25

I think we were at about 1.5 uh when we showed it to you last time.

3:29

And one of the main reasons was we had that two percent cola for personnel baked into it last time, and now we're at the three percent, and we kind of discussed that previously.

3:37

Our goal was to get it to three percent, and we're there, so that just ticks that up just a hair on the overall increase.

3:46

Um, another slide.

3:50

Uh I don't know what happened to my PowerPoint in front of me, but um, we do have some of the expenditures here, um, just so you can kind of see again how much makes up our people cost versus capital versus our operating.

4:03

Uh I find this interesting too because right now we're at about 62 percent, and I was looking Grand Island last night as about 80 percent of their cost or people cost, and they were hoping to get closer to 70 percent, so they still got a long ways to go to get that.

4:18

So I found that interesting.

Discussion Breakdown — Share of Meeting
Budget Equity Analysis█████████████████████████████████████████████56%
Procedural███████████████████████28%
Fire Department█████████████16%
Summary of Proceedings

Kearney City Council Public Hearings on FY2026-2027 Budget and Property Tax Request - September 9, 2026

The Kearney City Council held public hearings on September 9, 2026, at 5:30 p.m., to discuss the proposed fiscal year 2026-2027 budget and the 2026 property tax request. The hearings were for discussion only; final votes are scheduled for the September 22 council meeting.

Discussion Items

  • Budget presentation by Finance Director Brian Schultz: General fund revenues are just over $40 million, with expenditures just under $41 million (a 1.7% increase from the prior year). Personnel costs account for approximately 62% of the general fund budget (compared to Grand Island's 80%). Property taxes support the general fund and public safety bonds (16%). Enterprise fund revenues total $59 million, down about $10 million from the previous year, driven by capital projects. Personnel changes include a 3% cost-of-living adjustment, conversion of some full-time positions to part-time and limited classifications, addition of a fire engineer for Fire Station #3, and a police officer position contingent on grant funding. Major capital projects: Fire Station #3, airport improvements, and street projects. Fee schedule changes: building permit fees increase from $0.27 to $0.30 per square foot, pool pass simplification, golf pass increases, utility rate increases (water 3%, sewer 7.5% final year, sanitation 3.5%, stormwater from $3 to $3.25 residential and $8 to $10 non-residential). Budget assumptions: 1.5% sales tax growth, 5.3% property valuation growth (actual, above estimated 5%), 2.53% growth valuation (actual, above estimated 1.67%), no increase in NPPD lease payments, no health insurance premium increase, and needs-only capital spending.
  • Property tax hearing: The total property tax request of $8.5 million remains unchanged from the preliminary estimate, but the overall levy rate decreased slightly due to higher-than-expected valuation growth (5.3% vs. 5% estimate). The levy breakdown across four taxing entities was presented.
  • Council member asked about missing sales tax revenue slides; no further questions.

Key Outcomes

  • Both public hearings were closed by unanimous roll call votes (Mayor Nikkila, Vice-President Buschkoetter, Council Members Moore, Schmidt, Kotsiopulos all voted aye).
  • No members of the public provided testimony at either hearing.
  • Final adoption of the budget, comprehensive fee schedule, property tax request resolution, and budget ordinance is scheduled for the September 22 council meeting.

Meeting Transcript

Mayor Nicolette. Here. Bush Cutter. More. Air Schmidt. Here. Coxiapolis. Here. Okay. If I decided that. Okay. Never mind. Sorry. I'm roll call carries. Yeah, yeah. Sorry. I just I didn't hit enough last time. Maybe we're done. No, no, I don't know why I was. You are an optimistic young woman. Agenda item three is to conduct a public hearing on the City of Kearney budget for the 2026-2023 fiscal year. This item is for discussion purposes and will not be voted on until the September 22nd council meeting. Brian Schultz. Good evening, everybody. All right. So I got a bit of an agenda here tonight just to kind of go over this. It'll be really similar to what we uh showcased a few weeks ago. So I'm going to kind of go over some differences from what we kind of previously talked about, so you guys can understand that without having to rehash all of it. Peggy and I were talking. I uh thought I was gonna have them in the opposite order, so we will skip the first few slides and then circle back on those. So uh general fund. I'll kind of get over that here first and foremost. So um where we're at on our revenues, we're again we're just uh just over 40 million for the upcoming year. And again, kind of what makes those up. I expanded a little bit uh as we were kind of talking the others and transfers. Uh it wasn't very apparent on my last slide, but those are primarily made up of the NPPD at lease payments that we already do continue to get and transfer some other funds. So it looked weird to just say like I have a random 11 million dollar plug, so I wanted you to know kind of what makes up that number there. Um, and then we did kind of beef up our licenses and permits just a little bit um due to some comprehensive fee schedule changes, which we'll get into here in a little bit. Um since I know you all read the 808-page PDF that we sent you. Um I'm working on skinnying that up a little bit. Uh, do have some screenshots from out of that document um that will kind of help showcase again pie chart version of what it is that makes up our revenue stream as they're coming in across the board. Again, primarily taxes, and then we have the transfers uh coming in. Again, we kind of have uh the property taxes, just kind of want to showcase again where that money is going to for next year. Again, primarily most of it's into general fund. We do have our public safety uh bonds, which taking up 16% of it. So I wanted to make sure you guys can see where our property taxes are going. We do have our distribution. Uh we are roughly 11% based on the most current year. Unfortunately, we do not have the um new numbers for this upcoming year as of yet. We won't have that stuff until they ratify everything towards the end of October, primarily.

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