2026 Budget

The City of Fargo follows a standard budget development process. The process includes an update of revenue projections by the Finance Department, based upon historical trends and changes in our resources. Then, a budget review team consisting of the City Administrator, Assistant City Administrator, Director of Finance, Assistant Director of Finance, Human Resources Director, Assistant Human Resources Director and the Mayor meets with department and division heads to discuss the details of each manager's requests for the upcoming year. Upon conclusion of the meetings, the budget review team prioritizes requests based on the overall needs of the City and makes adjustments for funding certain requests. New for the 2026 budget preparation, a public meeting budget workshop was held between staff and the City Commission to discuss budget requests. Incorporating information from the various meetings, the preliminary budget is presented to the City Commission. Following a public hearing, the City Commission approves the final budget which may include modifications from the preliminary budget.

A public hearing on the budget was held during the September 15 City Commission meeting. The 2026 balanced budget was adopted at the September 29, 2025 City Commission meeting.

For your review, we've included the link to the 2026 final approved budget. You will need the free Adobe Acrobat Reader to view the document.

We also encourage you to view the PowerPoint presentations of the 2026 preliminary budget and the 2026 final budget. The documents address the chronology of the 2026 budget process, along with steps taken to arrive at the resulting balanced 2026 General Fund budget.