Brunswick reviews projected funding in 2025 budget

BRUNSWICK — According to Brunswick city officials, the city is in a better place financially than it was a decade ago. Brunswick Finance Director Todd Fischer reviewed the city's proposed budget for 2025 during a Committee-of-the-Whole meeting on Monday. He said within a typical year, Brunswick spends between $35 million to $40 million. Income tax is the city's biggest revenue source. He said Brunswick is projecting a 1 percent increase in 2025, amounting to $27.6 million. It is the first time since the Great Recession that income taxes for the city are flat. "This is a little different, though," Fischer said. "I think this is just more of things have been so good for four or five years, and I think this is just a reset. I don't think this is anything to worry about, but we do have a fund balance reserve policy if we're wrong." Yet, Brunswick residents returning to the office in large numbers could impact the city's biggest revenue source, he said. The city gets 2 percent of wages from at-home workers. Yet, when a Brunswick resident works in another city, the other city gets a 1 percent credit from Brunswick. "If they start going back to the workplace instead of working out of their house in Brunswick, we will see a 50 percent decline for that person," Fischer said. "If that becomes of any kind of significance, we could see a pretty good drop. It has nothing to do with the economy itself, since it's just an effect of COVID." Prior to 2010, the vast majority of the city's funding went to staff rather than infrastructure, he said. Now Brunswick puts aside funding for infrastructure projects each year without asking residents for additional money, except for the new fire station. "If we do expand our services, whether safety or anything else, that pulls from that infrastructure money," Fischer said. "Not saying it can't be done. It's just a tug of war." Fischer developed a chart that shows if the city overspends or underspends in each of its major operational funds. The general fund, for instance, is expected to have about $1.78 million more in funding than in expenses. "Ultimately, we're not looking to spend all that because we could have a capital projects item or something down the road and want to remain flexible," he said. The rec center is projected to overspend its revenue by about $86,000, Fischer said. The rec center got its program revenues back up to pre-pandemic levels, but programs cost money to run. "Memberships are still below COVID times by at least 20 percent," he said. "That's something that needs to be focused on, and how we do that. The building is on the older side, so it's not a very easy answer." Brunswick has also not used income taxes to retire debt for its 13th consecutive year. Fischer said it is a big reason why the city has spent funds on infrastructure like road improvements. Council still has to approve the 2025 budget at a future meeting. "I think we've done a fabulous job overall," City Manager Carl DeForest said. "I appreciate Council's support in the past few years as we're trying to implement reasonably appropriate budgets." Contact reporter Madisyn Woodring at (330) 721-4049 or mwoodring@medina-gazette.com.