by Malcolm Butler
The Ruston City Council unanimously adopted the city’s 2026-27 budget Monday night, approving a financial plan that includes $121 million in projected revenue and nearly $59 million in capital spending.
The budget for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1 includes $85 million in operating expenses and $58.9 million in capital projects, approximately half of which are tied to grants or other federal and state funding.
It also includes a 4% cost-of-living increase for all full-time city employees, excluding elected officials.
But before the council approved the budget, mayoral candidate William Faulkner used the public hearing to question the city about its long-term capital planning and the amount of information available to residents about those expenditures.
Faulkner, who is challenging incumbent Mayor Ronny Walker in this fall’s election, said he counted approximately 50 capital projects totaling almost $60 million in the proposed budget.
He questioned how much had already been spent on the projects, what additional spending could be required in future years and what the projects could cost to operate and maintain over the next five, 10 or 20 years.
“If the city provided a capital improvement plan, all these questions would be answered,” Faulkner said, adding that he was unable to locate such a document on the city’s website.
Walker said the city’s infrastructure spending is part of a long-term plan approved by Ruston voters a decade ago.
“Ten years ago, the people of Ruston voted on a 20-year plan,” Walker said while discussing infrastructure projects. “This is part of that 20-year plan.”
City Public Works Director John Freeman said the city works annually within budgeted amounts on infrastructure improvements, coordinating projects so underground water, sewer and other utility work can be completed before streets are reconstructed or overlaid.
Faulkner also questioned transfers between various city funds, saying the budget did not provide enough context for residents to understand where the money originated, where it was transferred and its ultimate purpose.
“I think transparency isn’t simply telling us how much money is being spent,” Faulkner said. “It’s helping us to understand what we’re buying, why we’re buying it, where the money comes from, where it’s going and, after this year’s spending is done, what’s next.”
City Finance Director Julie Keen said the document before the council was an annual budget and therefore does not show multiyear expenditures associated with projects.
“You’re not going to see multiyear expenses in what’s presented tonight as the fiscal year ’27,” Keen said. “So this is one year and one year only.”
Keen also said transfers between funds are common in municipal government, including the use of enterprise funds to help fund other city departments.
“If you see a transfer out in one fund, you will see a transfer in to the fund that it went to,” Keen said.
Walker defended the city’s financial transparency, saying Ruston follows state requirements and often takes matters before the City Council even when council approval is not legally required.
“We’re following everything to the letter that we’re supposed to, according to the state guidelines, but we go even a step further,” Walker said. “Our city attorney tells me all the time, ‘Ronny, you take stuff to the City Council that you don’t have to take to the City Council.’ We do that because we are totally transparent.”
Walker said council members also met individually with city officials during the previous week to review the proposed budget in detail, with approximately five hours collectively spent on those meetings.
Following the public hearing, all five council members voted in favor of adopting the budget.
Keen said projected citywide revenue represents a 7% increase from the previous year’s budget and includes $26 million in sales tax revenue.
Revenue from enterprise funds is projected at $69.9 million, an increase of $22 million from the previous year, primarily because of federal grants and appropriations anticipated for improvements to the city’s electrical system.
Operating expenses are projected to increase by $2.9 million.
“As you know, and we continue to see in all areas, the cost of operations continues to increase,” Keen said.
The $58.9 million capital budget includes $20.6 million in general fund projects, including various street projects already underway or scheduled to begin during the upcoming fiscal year.
Another $38 million is budgeted for enterprise fund projects, including electrical system substation and subfeeder improvements, water system improvements, construction of a 10-unit T-hangar and other infrastructure improvements.
Keen said the budget projects an ending fund balance of $157 million.
Walker also praised Keen, city department heads and the city’s financial staff for their management of city finances, saying Ruston has received clean audits with no findings for 11 consecutive years despite administering more than $72 million in federal and state grants during that period.
