Six years of city spending, revenue, and staffing data from official City Manager preliminary budgets.
How Springfield allocates its General Fund across departments each year. Toggle between dollar amounts and percentage of total.
💡 Click any department segment to see its spending breakdown by category
General Fund revenue, expenditures, and ending fund balance. The dashed line marks the GFOA-recommended minimum reserve of 16.7% (two months of expenditures).
Select one or more departments to compare their General Fund budgets over time.
Compare what was budgeted to what was actually spent in the General Fund. Actual expenditure data is available for 2021-2024 from subsequent year budget documents.
Total city spending across all funds, including enterprise funds (Water, Sewer), streets, capital improvements, and more.
The gray "Other Funds" category jumped from $9.6M (2022) to $25M (2023). Here are the largest components, based on preliminary budget figures (the same basis as the chart above):
Key story: The Fire Enhancement Fund didn't exist before 2023. When the city moved Fire off the General Fund, it created a ~$17.6M line item that accounts for nearly all of the $15.4M jump in "Other Funds."
About the "Remaining" row: This includes bond retirement payments, capital project funds, ODOT grants, transit grants, municipal court special funds, and dozens of smaller special revenue funds. It also excludes federal grant programs like CDBG, HOME, ARPA, and ESG, which are significant (over $20M in some years) but don't appear in the preliminary budget because they're appropriated mid-year after grant awards are confirmed. The Budget vs. Actual section shows the difference between what was planned and what was actually spent.
Public safety is Springfield's largest expense. These totals include all funding sources: General Fund allocations plus dedicated levy (Police) and enhancement fund (Fire) revenue.
Full-time equivalent (FTE) positions budgeted per year. Use the dropdown to view specific categories.
The General Fund balance fell from 29.98% of expenditures in 2022 to a projected 9.26% in 2026, well below the GFOA-recommended 16.7% minimum. This leaves Springfield with less than 34 days of operating reserves.
In 2023, the Fire Department moved entirely out of the General Fund and into the dedicated Fire Enhancement Fund. This makes General Fund comparisons misleading unless you account for the shift. Actual fire spending grew 31% over the period.
The "Non-Departmental/Misc" category jumped from $3.3M in 2022 to $18.7M in 2023, a 467% increase. This reflects large inter-fund transfers, including the fire fund restructuring and other one-time items. It has remained elevated since.
After reaching a peak of 595 FTEs in 2025, the city cut 34 positions in 2026 through the Voluntary Separation Incentive Program (VSIP). This was part of a broader effort to manage costs as the fund balance declined.
Springfield transitioned income tax collection to the Regional Income Tax Agency (RITA). Income tax revenue, the city's primary funding source, grew from $40M in 2021 to $52.7M in 2026, though growth flattened in the final two years.
Police spending (all funds) grew 29% from $16.1M in 2021 to $20.8M in 2026, making it consistently the single largest city expenditure. The General Fund police allocation alone grew from $12.6M to $16.7M.
All data on this page comes from official City Manager Preliminary Budget documents published by the City of Springfield, Ohio. We extracted figures from the original PDFs and normalized department names that changed across years.
Note: The 2025 preliminary budget was published on springfieldohio.gov but has since been removed. OpenSpringfield obtained the data before removal. Department names and organizational structures changed between years; we grouped departments consistently for comparison. "Other Funds" in the All Funds chart is calculated as the difference between total all-funds and the individually tracked fund categories.
For 2026, Springfield's total all-funds budget is approximately $150.5 million, with a General Fund of $61.2 million. The budget has grown from $105 million (all funds) in 2021, a 43.4% increase over six years.
The vast majority of Springfield's General Fund revenue comes from income tax, which generated $52.7 million (net) in 2026. This single source accounts for roughly 86% of General Fund revenue. Other sources include property taxes, fees, fines, and intergovernmental transfers. Explore vendor-level spending on our Search page.
Starting in 2023, Fire Department funding moved entirely from the General Fund to the dedicated Fire Enhancement Fund. Total fire spending actually continued to grow (from $15.5M in 2021 to $20.3M in 2026), but it no longer appears in General Fund line items. This was a structural accounting change, not a service reduction.
Springfield's General Fund balance has declined from 29.98% of expenditures in 2022 to a projected 9.26% in 2026. The Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) recommends maintaining at least 16.7% (two months) in reserves. Springfield fell below this threshold in 2025 and continues to decline.
The Non-Departmental/Miscellaneous category includes inter-fund transfers, debt service payments, VSIP (Voluntary Separation Incentive Program) payouts, and other items not assigned to a specific department. It spiked dramatically in 2023 when large transfers were made to other funds as part of the fire department restructuring and other operational changes.
Official budget PDFs are published on springfieldohio.gov by the City Manager's office. Note that the 2025 preliminary budget was removed from the city website. Links to available documents are in our Data Sources section above.