The Emporia Recreation Commission has approved the 2026 fiscal year budget with a slight increase from the prior year, following a special meeting Wednesday evening.
Specifically, Emporia Rec Director Amanda Gutierrez says the more than $8.8 million total is roughly $500,000 higher than the 2025 budget, with a $4 million cash carryover from the prior year, the resumption of RecXtra and the ERC’s employee benefit fund all playing a role in the uptick. Gutierrez did note that while they have budgeted for just over $8.8 million, the actual working budget will be closer to $5 million for a few key reasons.
On top of the $1 million set aside for first-half year bill payments, Gutierrez reminded residents that $1.5 million has been committed to the DeBauge Soccer Complex upgrade project with other smaller-scale projects planned as well, such as an update to the Lee Beran Recreation Center’s fire suppression system. A portion of the budgeted dollars will not actually go towards any local operations, according to Gutierrez, as they are set to be returned to the Federal government later this year.
In addition to setting the budget for the 26 fiscal year, the ERC also approved exceeding the revenue-neutral rate for FY26 as part of Wednesday’s meeting. The ERC is set to reconvene Monday at 5:30 pm inside of the Lee Beran Recreation Center for its regular monthly meeting.
