Large projects are on the horizon for Bowling Green as commissioners on Tuesday unanimously approved the first reading of the city’s $188.7 million, all-funds budget for fiscal year 2026, an increase of over $15 million from FY2025.

When it comes to tax changes for this budget, city CFO Katie Schaller-Ward said nothing is on the table right now.

“We don’t have any changes currently incorporated into this budget,” she said.

Katie Schaller-Ward, chief financial officer for the city, told the Daily News that the increase is due to a number of factors, including increased revenue from property taxes and the 2% occupational tax rate, which will be in full force for the first time in FY2026 and accounts for a $9.5 million share of the increase.

“Occupational fees obviously have an increase (and) property tax has growth,” she said. “As assessment values grow, so does our growth in property tax.”

A video shared online by the city details different projects listed in the budget. The video states that $12.3 million has been identified for “community livability” plans, including parks and infrastructure upgrades.

Four million dollars has been set aside for the Riverfront Park project, money Schaller-Ward said will fund future stages of the park project, including the Barren River Whitewater Park.

She said construction of phase one of the park will go to bid this fall, with phase two following closely behind. Planning and design on phase three, the phase that includes the whitewater park, has begun.

“Those first three phases are kind of happening all at the same time,” she said. “So we put an additional $4 million in, not knowing if we’ll need it for any one of these three phases.”

Five stormwater rehabilitation projects were listed in the FY2025 budget, the first time projects of that sort had been budgeted for. The FY2026 budget allocates an additional $1.5 million toward stormwater improvements.

First responder agencies in the city are also expected to grow under the budget. Six new positions will be created in the Bowling Green Police Department under the budget, and five new positions will appear in the Bowling Green Fire Department.

Earlier this spring, the city approved a $900,000 change order to repair sinkholes that appeared throughout town as a result of the April flooding. That change order was one of several the city authorized for sinkholes over the past fiscal year.

Even with the added costs, Schaller-Ward said the city is expected to “under-spend” once FY2025 ends.

“We want to budget conservatively on the revenue side so that we don’t over-budget on the expense side,” she said. “We traditionally will receive more revenue than what we budget, so that will provide for some additional income that we didn’t plan.”

City expenditures for FY2026 are expected to stand at $190.1 million. Though this is higher than the budget figure, Schaller-Ward said this does not mean the city will run a deficit.

“We are not, by statute, allowed to have a deficit budget,” she said. “We can use already saved money, we can use reserves to help balance, but we always want to present a general fund that is equal (in) revenue and expense.”

Bowling Green Mayor Todd Alcott summed up his thoughts on the budget during the meeting.

“Our community is going to get a lot out of this,” Alcott said.City OK’s first reading of ’26 budget