Springfield Commissioners Hear New 2026 Budget

BY JEFF SKINNER 

SPRINGFIELD - Springfield city commissioners heard their first official reporting over the upcoming 2026 budget in a hearing, prior to the main commission meeting, on December 2, presented by finance director Katie Eviston. Based on the reporting, the city appears to be staring down an incredibly lean budget with only a minor, temporary bump in general fund revenue due to incorporation into RITA.

According to Eviston, the city is expected to see a slight increase in general fund revenues by around $5 million, however this is due to the actions of RITA scrupulously scouring records to find tax dollars not fully paid, with some residents reporting they have been asked to procure records going back 10 years. Based on the report, this revenue is not expected to be sustained annually. This revenue will actually be revenue collected for the 2025 tax season, not actual economic growth from 2026.

“This year's process was especially challenging,” Eviston said. “It required difficult conversations, collaboration across departments, and continued work to communicate openly and build shared understanding across the organization and the community with a focus on operating as efficiently as possible. Some decisions directly affected people and our focus remained on doing what was necessary to preserve core services and long-term fiscal stability. Even with those challenges, we were able to deliver a balanced budget for 2026.” 

According to Eviston, the city was expected to face a significant deficit for 2026 of around $6 million. Based on the report from Eviston, Outside of the RITA surge, cuts and reductions most likely needed to be made to several funds, including the voluntary separation incentive program as well as reductions in funds historically supported by the general fund, such as the permanent improvement fund, the parking fund and the airport fund in order to bring the budget to balance. Much ado was made during the hearing that despite cuts to multiple funds and city staffing, the city is still maintaining funding for police and fire above the charter minimum. 

Despite these cuts and the discussion on budget tightening, the city has been rolling out a new water meter replacement program for city residents. During the regular meeting, one resident noted he had not been notified of the meter replacement program and voiced concerns over how his water was shut off due to a failure to facilitate the transition. 

The city has touted the new meters as beneficial to the community both in upgrading old infrastructure and the ability of the meters to notify residents if they have a leak. However many have noted SMART meters present a trojan horse or impacts to local residents forced to receive them.

TOR has previously reported extensively on SMART meter rollouts in municipalities and how SMART meters, specifically electric meters, but potentially water as well, are designed to actually generate additional revenue from residents by averaging usage rates rather than calculating exact usage as previous manual meters would do. In essence, despite the perceived arguments that replacing the meters is costly to the city, it actually may serve as a means of generating additional revenue long-term, albeit minimally. Residents in areas where SMART meters have been installed have overwhelmingly stated they have seen increases in costs despite no additional usage reported.

Despite prolonged controversy surrounding the Springfield Commission leadership, members of the commission voiced appreciation for those residents who have been regularly showing up to meetings to voice questions and comments, stating they welcome dialogue and invite residents to reach out by phone or in person to discuss matters of the city in a move seeking to quell the adversarial perception of the city government with the populace. The move could mark a significant shift in conduct and demeanor from the Springfield government, especially as the Temporary Protective Status of somewhere around 10-15,000 Haitians in the city is soon to be revoked, marking a significant demographic shift.