Springfield Ohio Budget Process

The Annual Budget Process, near as I can tell:

• Begins in April of each year with the tax budget – the revenue forecast for the county.

• Depts then submit their budgets in late august.

• Dept leaders meet in September and October to refine and right-size.

• City Mgr worked extensively – city manager’s 226 preliminary budget.

• City charter requires that this City manager budget be done by Nov 1 each year.

• Shared with commissioners in mid-nov hey met in extensive work sessions. They were open to the public and no changes.

• Then it's submitted to Clark Schafer and Hackett - the bought and paid for accounting firm they refer to as their IPA.

• Then, once that's reviewed and approved, it goes to the Ohio State Auditor for review and approval.

• That final version becomes the "Final Audit" and should* appear in the search results.

*I say should because no Final Report has been published since 2023 for 2022. Odd, because every single one has been published within 9 months since 1999.

The 2026 Preliminary Budget Started with a Deficit of $6.9 million and ended in an $88,000 Surplus.

They can now refer to it as a "Balanced Budget". (See below T&E report for how Eviston and Heck math things. )

Katie Eviston presented the 2026 Preliminary budget in the December 2, 2025, Commission meeting video. Her presentation is from 5:22 to 22:26. Rue and Estrop and Tackett gush for a few after that thanking each other for all their work.

Eviston concludes with: This budget "includes challenges that require financial discipline and cautious spending and highlight our commitment to fiscal responsibility, operational excellence, and service". See below for how she handled two T&E reports for her and Heck's pretty simple trips to a conference in Columbus, 45 minutes away.

She said she'd publish both the presentation and a PDF of the Preliminary Budget on the website (https://springfieldohio.gov/finance/) by that Friday, December 5, 2025. She did not. I sent a message to the City Clerk via the Talk to Us form asking why it hadn't been published yet.

According to AI: A city's budget process, leading to state auditor review, generally involves Preparation (departments submit requests), Review & Public Hearings (auditor/finance prepares preliminary, then public input), Approval (city council/commissioners adopt), and then Execution & Accountability, with the final, adopted budget being submitted to the State Auditor for post-audit or compliance checks to ensure legal and fiscal adherence.

Hello,

In looking up budgets for Springfield, Ohio, I believe the City publishes a "Preliminary Budget" for each year to its Finance Dept page: https://springfieldohio.gov/finance/

I was looking for the ones they submit to the Ohio Auditor for review and final approval on the https://ohioauditor.gov/auditsearch/search.aspx page.

But the most recent approved report/Audit was published October 2023 for the year 2022. It looks like all the reports since 1999 are published and do appear in the search results.

I'd like to know where I can find the Ohio Auditor report/budget/audit (whichever it may be called) for 2023, 2024, and 2025.

In the December 2, 2025, Commission Meeting, Springfield, Ohio, Finance Director Katie Eviston, presented a "2026 Balanced Budget". She said that she would be publishing it on the City's website by Friday, December 5th. She did not, of course. So my question is a result of my looking for the reports for each year to see if she ever published those. I assume she publishes the Preliminary version, sends to the Ohio Auditor to publish the "Final Audit" version on the site.

Thank you so much for any help.

Heck and Eviston T&E Report math examples for a pretty simple conference in Columbus. What could go wrong with a multi-million dollar budget?

December 2, 2025, Presentation on the 2026 Preliminary Budget. Timestamp 5:23 to 22:26