Brookfield officials previewed the village’s operating budget for 2026, which will likely be approved on Dec. 8. In total, the budget for all funds to be spent next year amounts to $67,016,860, Finance Director Doug Cooper wrote in a memo, an increase of about $288,000, or 0.43%, from the 2025 budget.
“It means that we really watched our budget, and we watched where we’re going for in 2026,” Cooper said of the increase at the village board’s Nov. 24 committee of the whole meeting.
Total revenues for Brookfield in 2026 are budgeted at about $75.9 million, according to the draft budget document, also prepared by Cooper.
The current year will be the seventh year, he wrote, ending with a surplus amount of money in Brookfield’s general fund based on current estimates before transfers from other funds, with about $24.6 million in revenues and about $23.3 million in expenditures. The general fund represents the village’s available monies to fund operations.
In 2026, general fund revenues are budgeted to increase to $25.4 million while expenditures will grow to $24.6 million, representing a tightening of the funds Brookfield expects to keep in reserve.
“We have worked it so that over the last six years, we are still operating in a surplus, which is good; however, the surplus is narrowing down as we look at the 2026 budget,” Cooper told trustees. “We will start looking for other ways to expand these two lines so that revenues exceed expenditures by a little bit more. In that way, we will help build up our fund reserve.”
Cooper said the overall goal is for Brookfield to keep 25% of its operating costs in reserves at all times, which would allow the village to continue operating for three months with no revenues in an emergency.
At the end of 2025, the general fund reserve is estimated to be about $5.35 million, representing about 24% of total operating expenditures, Cooper’s memo said. The budgeted reserve for the end of 2026 is roughly $5.46 million, which will comprise 23% of operation costs next year.
Of the $24.6 million in general fund expenditures for 2026, about 70% are related to personnel costs, Cooper said. Some $13.4 million, or 54%, will be paid out to employees in their salaries and benefits, with another $4.2 million, or 17%, going to pension contributions.
Cooper said much of the increase in Brookfield’s general fund expenditures from 2025 to 2026 can be attributed to growth in staffing costs, in the form of 3% cost-of-living raises for staff as well as overtime pay, which is expected to rise by about $225,000 next year due to the police and fire departments being understaffed. According to the draft budget document, the fire department paid out $475,000 in unexpected overtime for 2025 while the police department exceeded its overtime budget by $60,000.
Other costs in the budget include $359,000 paid toward pension funds and an additional $93,000 dedicated to park improvements and maintenance, like those planned for Ehlert Park and South Maple Park. The tighter ratio between revenues and expenditures can also be attributed to lower capital expenditures in 2025 compared to previous years, Cooper wrote, with those projects expected to increase again for 2026.
A full overview of the draft budget is available online as an attachment to the agenda for the Nov. 24 committee meeting.
“What Doug just did for the past half hour is summarize what started with weeks and months of department- and staff-level meetings, and we had a three-and-a-half-hour budget workshop here in this room a month ago and then another hour executive session on some of the personnel matters,” said Village President Michael Garvey.
