HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — Huntington Mayor Patrick Farrell presented his proposed fiscal year 2026 budget for city council members at Monday evening’s council meeting.
Patrick Farrell
He started his presentation with telling council members how he sees the current fiscal year 2025 budget before jumping in and saying the things that will be different for the FY 2026 budget.
Farrell said that they project that the projected budget is going to be $78 million dollars for the upcoming fiscal year.
He says that it will be flexible.
“I consider this to be a flat budget, it is roughly the same number, we’re not going to try and spend more money, we’re just going to try and allocate the spending that we have in accords with our priorities,” Farrell said.
He said his main focuses with the budget, which he outlined in his inaugural address in January, will be on public safety, infrastructure, and economic growth.
He also said he wanted the budget to be transparent, accurate, focused, understandable, and forward looking.
One of the main points he discussed with council members is that federal funding is going down, but costs are going up.
“Our biggest revenue sources are on a downward trajectory, our grants and our revenue is coming down, at the same time that our expenses are coming up that is putting pressure on us because we continue have to support our assets while we have these overwhelming liabilities that are sitting on top of us,” Farrell said. “All that puts us in a cash position that I’m not proud of and I want to work to make it healthier.”
He said because funding is going down, there will have to be some cuts made in the budget, especially with donations. He said that last year, the total contributions were $3.6 to $3.8 million dollars and this year he wants to cut those contributions down to $2.7 million dollars.
The one example he gave was charities, who receive generous donations from the city.
However, he did say that he wasn’t going to take away all the funding.
“That’s not to say we’re going to abandon all of them, because that’s not my intent,” Farrell said. “We have many partners that rely on us, we have many contractual relationships. We’ll continue be a partner with people like the park, the library, the animal shelter, we’ll continue to meet those obligations but there will be some areas that we will not be able to continue to do because we just don’t have the money.”
He pointed out that the police and fire departments will remain fully funded, again in the efforts to make the city safer.