LINCOLN CITY, Ore. — This Reporter’s Audit dissects the FY 2025-26 plan from official releases and records, spotlighting spending categories and key projects to track where taxes, grants and fees flow.

The total adopted budget for 2025-26, which runs from July 1, 2025, to June 30, 2026, amounts to $101.7 million. This is a 4.7% increase from last year’s $97 million.

Funds are divided into three primary buckets:

• Personnel and Operating Costs: $39.1 million. This covers salaries, benefits, and routine expenses for city staff across departments like public works, administration, and community services.
• Capital Equipment and Infrastructure: $30 million. These dollars target one-time purchases and long-term improvements, such as vehicles, facilities, and utility systems.
• Capital Reserves and Operational Contingencies: $19.2 million. Set aside for future needs, emergencies, or unexpected costs, this portion builds financial flexibility.

These categories encompass all city funds, including enterprise funds for utilities like water and sewer, as well as special revenue sources.

Key Projects

The budget news release highlights several specific initiatives, with allocations tied to infrastructure resilience and community enhancements. Funding for these draws from a mix of general revenues, grants, taxes, and charges. We dug a little deeper to show you more:

• Completion of Schooner Creek Discovery Park (Phase 3): $8,257,946 — Final features including a covered multi-sports court, permanent pickleball courts, a turfed multi-sports field, and walking paths. (Grants, donations, general fund transfers, system development charges, and $5.5 million in debt financing.)
• Lincoln City Welcome Center Design and Construction: $5,115,000 — Visitor center architecture/design ($500,000) and tourism attraction development/construction ($4,615,000) at D River State Recreation Site. (Transient room taxes.)
• 2nd Street Inflow and Infiltration (I&I) Project near Devils Lake: $6,000,000 — Addresses sewer inflow and infiltration issues. ($4 million in debt financing planned for fall 2025.)
• Surf Reservoir/Spring Lake Area Water Booster Pump Station: $2,700,000 — Construction of a new pump station to resolve water supply shortages, enabling residential development in the area. (State grants via SB1530, with $3 million total allocated.)
• Nelscott Force Main Sewer (Phase 2) Replacement: $2,600,000 — Replacement of an undersized sewer line with a new pressure/gravity system to improve capacity and reliability. (Sewer enterprise fund, ARPA funds.)
• Watershed Protection Plan Implementation – Land Acquisition: $1,871,279 — Acquisition of land for watershed protection. (Not specified in release.)
• SE Mast Water Line (Lee Reservoir to Port): $539,685 — Water system construction. (Water enterprise fund.)
• These projects total about $27 million, representing roughly 26% of the overall budget.

General Fund Breakdown

The general fund, which finances core government operations without relying on user fees or grants, is projected at $18.3 million in expenditures for the year. This is a $2.4 million decrease from 2025-26.

Key areas supported include:

• Public safety (police and fire)
• Library operations
• Economic development initiatives
• Planning and building inspections

At the close of 2025-26, the general fund is forecasted to hold $8.9 million in reserves—a modest decline from prior estimates but aligned with financial best practices for local governments.

The budget also has supplemental adjustments from last year, such as a $447,000 increase for land purchases and $118,000 for North Highway 101 improvements, as noted in related resolutions.

Residents can access the full adopted budget, including detailed line items and fund summaries, on the city’s finance department page at lincolncity.org/departments/finance/budgets.

The City Council formally adopted the budget during its June 9 meeting, following review by the budget committee.

This audit relies solely on publicly released materials from the city. As with any financial plan, actual spending may vary based on revenues, emergencies, or council adjustments.

The Bottom Line

Lincoln City’s budgets follow Oregon’s local budget law, which mandates detailed public disclosures and balanced planning.  The level of detail in press releases (e.g., exact project costs and sources) exceeds what’s typical for cities this size.

Recent audits, including 2023-24, identified three significant findings related to internal controls, with no material weaknesses, accounting errors, or noncompliance reported. The city addressed audit deficiencies—such as reporting unspent donations, recording property and grant revenues, Transient Room Tax allocations, and federal grant verifications—through Resolution 2025-03. Audit reports were filed timely with extensions, though the city appeared on a delinquent list for prior years as of May 2025, likely due to filing timelines. Overall, no major red flags emerged in budgeting practices.

The Lincoln City City Council holds regular meetings on the second and fourth Mondays of each month at 6 p.m. in Council Chambers at City Hall, 801 SW U.S. Highway 101. The next sessions are scheduled for Oct. 13, Oct. 27 and Nov. 10, 2025.