The city anticipates flat revenue performance in income taxes, property taxes and waste collection fees, according to Abbie Patel-Jones, Dayton’s director of management and budget.
“Use of one-time sources offers us short-term relief as the city works to address structural imbalances in the general fund,” she said.
Dayton’s budget officials have talked for years about a structural financial imbalance that will require action to address. Officials also say federal budget actions could impact grant funding that Dayton receives from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and other programs.
Economic uncertainty continues to shape the city’s financial planning, said Dayton City Manager Shelley Dickstein.
“While inflation has eased, we’re still managing through higher costs, labor challenges and broader instability that all impact our budget,” she said.
Dickstein said the city is working on short- and long-term solutions for anticipated revenue shortfalls. She said potential solutions include reducing departmental costs, finding efficiencies and identifying and using outside funding, like grants.
General fund revenue is expected to be up slightly by the end of this year (2025), after basically remaining flat in 2024. Revenue collections are expected to decline 0.5% in 2026. Most general fund revenue comes from Dayton’s earnings tax. Spending is expected to increase by about $11 million, compared to 2025.
The city of Dayton has about 1,900 employees. The Gem City is the sixth largest city in the state, with about 136,300 residents.
Dayton officials plan to fill the gap between revenues and expenses using nearly $4 million of the city’s cash savings, plus one-time funding that mainly comes from interest earnings from the $138 million the city received in federal COVID relief funding.
The city is on track to use about $1.5 million its cash savings this year, since expenses are exceeding revenues. This would be the first time in many years that the city has spent money from its reserves.
Dayton’s original proposed annual budgets between 2017 and 2021 predicted that the city would need dip into its savings, but was never necessary since revenues outperformed projections.
Patel-Jones said Dayton’s general fund revenues are heavily reliant on the business cycle and potential vulnerabilities include a future recession; uncertain federal grant programs, funding and policies; aging equipment and infrastructure; social and geopolitical changes and employee turnover and burnout.
“Because of this structural imbalance, long-term cost containment will be necessary (because) the cost of government will likely continue to outpace the growth in revenues along with the inevitability of business cycle change,” she said.
The $138 million in federal COVID aid has already been committed and will run out soon, since the spending deadline is next year. The city in recent years used some of the federal dollars for revenue replacement.
The Dayton City Commission is expected to vote on the city manager’s proposed budget later this year.
By the numbers: Dayton proposed 2026 general fund budget
Revenues estimate: $229 million
Expenses estimate: $242.7 million
Use of cash reserves: $4 million
Source: City of Dayton budget documents
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