Kettering 2025 budget shows income tax revenue, total spending both up

“We’re seeing income tax growth with our employers,” City Manager Matt Greeson said. “I don’t know that we can point to any one industry. But we have certainly stabilized since COVID and had some positive income tax growth … not gigantic, but certainly enough to project some modest increase.”

The city’s top five employers are Kettering Health, Reynolds & Reynolds, Kettering City Schools, Alternate Solutions Health Network and Solvita. Those businesses all have more than 800 jobs and account for more than 27% of employees in the city. Just under half of that (12.5%) from Kettering Health, the budget states.

Income taxes bring in over 70% of the revenues for Kettering’s general fund, which is projected at $81.66 million, about $7.4 million more than the plan approved last year, Kettering data shows.

Credit: NICK BLIZZARD/STAFF

Credit: NICK BLIZZARD/STAFF

The general fund supports key services such as police and fire. Those departments account for about 49.8% of the city’s expenses next year.

The budget approved in recent weeks lists the city’s five-year strategic plan as a priority. The document approved earlier this year outlines several key areas. They include:

• Providing “sustainable, effective, innovative” services.

• Fostering a diverse economy that provides employment, attracts new businesses and supports existing businesses.

• Promoting a “healthy, sustainable environment where decisions are made with an understanding of how they will affect the environment, people and communities today and in the future.”

The budget “gives some real direction of clarity to our goals” for next year, Kettering Mayor Peggy Lehner said.

A key focus will be incorporating Kettering’s sustainability program, Greeson said. The relatively new city effort involves a volunteer advisory committee to research and advocate for “environmentally sustainable practices and initiatives,” Kettering records show.

The city has created a position to manage the program and it will be filled by current volunteer administrator Dawn Kirchner, officials said.

The city plan also “assigns various existing staff members to the new communications and engagement office to provide more coordinated communications, marketing and engagement efforts,” Greeson said.

The 2025 spending plan calls for 2.5% wage increases for firefighters and fire captains, with 3% pay hikes for all other full-time and regular part-time employees, he added.

Kettering’s budget includes $17.4 million for capital projects, with $9.6 million for road improvements.

Nearly $5 million — about 29% — of the 2025 capital budget will be funded by federal and state grants, Assistant City Manager Steve Bergstresser said.

Major road projects include resurfacing parts of three major streets: Dorothy Lane from South Dixie Highway to just west of Wilmington Pike; Stroop Road near the Town & Country Shopping Center; and Patterson Road east of Woodman Drive.

Other notable facts about the spending plan, include:

• Police department spending is about $19.25 million, some $1.5 million less than this year’s estimate. The KPD, which also provides dispatchers for the city’s fire department and Miami Twp. police, will have a staff of about 124, including 67 patrol officers.

• Fire department spending is projected at about $18.5 million, about $2 million under what is estimated for 2024. The budget indicates 84 employees, 57 of which are firefighters/EMTs.

• Parks, Recreation and Cultural Arts has a budget of $13.3 million, an increase of about $800,000 compared to this year’s estimate. That includes 71% of general fund money.

• The Fraze Pavilion’s operating costs total $5.96 million. This year’s estimate is about $4 million.