The city of Madras is proposing a $38 million budget for the 2025–26 fiscal year. The budget, $1.5 million higher than the previous year’s, includes cuts to police, administration and community development, and increases for wastewater, airport operations, and the city-owned golf course. The budget anticipates a $2.15 million ending balance in the general fund.

Several departments are seeing less drastic cuts across programs, while utility operations are seeing notable growth in expenses. Many changes across departments are due to indirect charges to the general fund increasing 20%.

The police department will see a $196,167 decrease in funding, down to $3,009,680, which includes the elimination of one officer position, which is currently unfilled. Although police equipment and technology improvements are underway, the department is holding off on many needed upgrades this cycle to keep a balanced budget.

The community development budget drops by $112,722 to $417,383, reflecting a slowdown in local construction, which funds much of the department’s larger projects. City planners expect only 12 single-family and 51 multi-family homes to be built within the city in the year ahead — a decline attributed to high mortgage rates and fewer development applications. No long-range or special projects will move forward because of the decreased revenue.

The city also eliminated its HR director position as part of broader general fund reductions.

The parks department will operate with $572,444, about $20,712 less than last year. Despite the cut, city officials say operating costs are down 20%, and increased hotel/motel tax revenues will continue to support parks. Transportation operations will shrink by $817,248, totaling $3,598,552, largely due to lower materials costs and staffing changes.

The tourism and economic development fund is down nearly $96,098, with community projects cut by $60,000 and higher general fund expenses absorbing more of the total. The 2025–26 allocation is $982,969.

The wastewater operations fund is seeing the largest increase: a $3.18 million jump to $13,794,416. That growth is backed by higher user rates, a $600,000 subsidy deposited to the general fund, and increased expenses due to a new airport land lease.

The airport land lease has increased the cost of renting the land significantly, and is due to FAA regulations about leased land at airports. The FAA requires that all leased use be charged a standard fair rate, including the city, even if it owns the airport as well. This means increased lease rates for wastewater and the golf course, which are paid to the airport, also city managed.

The golf course’s overall expenses are higher by $477,750, due to this change and increased personnel costs.

Airport operations funding grew by $580,500 to $3,324,126. The airport also took over the airport FBO this year, increasing both revenue and expenses.

SDC and internal service funds mostly decreased.

Nearly all System Development Charge funds are trending downward. These funds are specific costs developers pay when building homes in the city to support infrastructure improvements assorted with having more homes and residents. These funds include:

Park SDCs down $682,710 to $1,155,798

Street SDCs down $259,871 to $974,992

Stormwater SDCs down $20,718 to $137,048

Budget hearings will be held by the city council, permitting citizen testimony on June 24.

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This article originally miscalculated the total budget amount, individual fund data was presented accurately. We regret this error