Overview
Gadsden's FY2027 approved budget is smaller than the FY2026 revised budget it replaces, and its General Fund is essentially balanced while the all-funds picture is not. General Fund revenues of $74,814,340 against General Fund expenditures of $73,814,341 leave a $999,999 surplus on the printed totals. Across all funds, however, approved revenues and other sources of $114,438,785 fall $13,121,136 short of approved expenditures and other uses of $127,559,921 — a gap this page discloses rather than reconciling, because the budget summary as printed does not present a single balancing line for it; it is consistent with drawing on fund balances and transfers between funds, but the summary tables alone do not prove that allocation. The FY2026 revised General Fund expenditure figure of $93,021,874 — far above both the FY2026 approved $80,947,003 and the FY2027 approved $73,814,341 — is printed as revised, not as an error, and is driven in the document by urban-development and non-departmental revisions.
Source: City of Gadsden Fiscal Year 2027 Approved Operating Budget, Financial Summary.
At a glance
Source: City of Gadsden FY2027 Approved Operating Budget, Financial Summary.
All funds
Both all-funds tables below re-add exactly to the document's printed totals. Note the asymmetry the document itself presents: the revenue summary has no debt-service revenue line, while the expenditure summary charges $12,321,367 to debt service funds — debt service is funded through transfers from other funds, not through its own revenue stream, so the two totals are not expected to match fund by fund. For comparison, FY2025 actual total revenues were $107,149,547 against actual total expenditures of $115,924,196, and FY2026 approved totals were $110,003,397 in revenues against $120,177,949 in expenditures.
| Fund group — revenues | FY27 Approved |
|---|---|
| General Fund | $74,814,340 |
| Enterprise funds | $7,989,500 |
| Special revenue funds | $10,453,446 |
| Capital projects funds | $21,181,499 |
| Total revenues and other sources | $114,438,785 |
| Fund group — expenditures | FY27 Approved |
|---|---|
| General Fund | $73,814,341 |
| Enterprise funds | $7,455,388 |
| Special revenue funds | $12,750,930 |
| Capital projects funds | $21,217,895 |
| Debt service funds | $12,321,367 |
| Total expenditures and other uses | $127,559,921 |
Disclosure — the $13,121,136 all-funds gap: approved expenditures exceed approved revenues by $13,121,136. This page does not force a balance: the budget summary does not print a single line reconciling the gap, and no fund-balance draw is asserted without a document line to support it.
Source: City of Gadsden FY2027 Approved Operating Budget, Revenue and Expenditure Summaries by Fund.
General Fund
General Fund revenues are dominated by taxes ($53,507,500), of which sales and use tax ($30,000,000) and the occupational license fee ($18,500,000) are the two largest lines. The revenue-by-source table below re-adds exactly to $74,814,340. On the spending side, public safety ($24,295,181) is the largest function, followed by urban development ($14,139,763) and non-departmental spending ($9,756,571).
| General Fund revenue by source | FY27 Approved |
|---|---|
| Taxes | $53,507,500 |
| Licenses & permits | $11,095,000 |
| Intergovernmental | $1,370,000 |
| Charges for services | $5,905,120 |
| Fines & forfeitures | $433,000 |
| Other income | $2,452,720 |
| Sale of assets | $51,000 |
| Total General Fund revenues | $74,814,340 |
| General Fund expenditures by function | FY27 Approved |
|---|---|
| General government | $4,213,428 |
| Internal services | $4,674,016 |
| Public safety | $24,295,181 |
| Recreation & cultural services | $8,705,158 |
| Public works services | $8,030,225 |
| Urban development | $14,139,763 |
| Non-departmental | $9,756,571 |
| Total General Fund expenditures (printed total) | $73,814,341 |
Disclosure — $1 rounding gap: the seven function lines above sum to $73,814,342, which is $1 above the document's printed General Fund expenditure total of $73,814,341. This page uses the printed total and discloses the $1 gap rather than altering a function line. Disclosure — the "$80 million" FY2026 figure: the record's "$80 million FY2026 budget approved under Ordinance O-21-25" corresponds to the General Fund's FY2026 Approved expenditure figure of $80,947,003 in this document — not to the city-wide FY2026 approved expenditure total of $120,177,949 — and it is cited here only in that General Fund sense.
Sources & notes
- Source used: City of Gadsden Fiscal Year 2027 Approved Operating Budget, official city DocumentCenter (cityofgadsden.com) Read the source document. Cover states "Adopted by Gadsden City Council September 8, 2026"; the document's own header and departmental directory name the City of Gadsden, Alabama (City Hall, 90 Broad St.), confirming Alabama jurisdiction.
- Sum checks: all-funds revenues $74,814,340 + $7,989,500 + $10,453,446 + $21,181,499 = $114,438,785; all-funds expenditures $73,814,341 + $7,455,388 + $12,750,930 + $21,217,895 + $12,321,367 = $127,559,921; General Fund revenues re-add to $74,814,340; General Fund function lines sum to $73,814,342 against a printed total of $73,814,341 ($1 gap disclosed above).
- Identity: this is the City of Gadsden, Alabama, seat of Etowah County. It is not Etowah County, and no county figures are included.
- Jurisdiction palette: no verified palette was on file for this jurisdiction — the official site is a CivicPlus platform site, and platform defaults are rejected as a palette source — so this page uses the neutral Hometown Numbers dark-glass theme rather than a jurisdiction color.
- Photo: none. No freely-licensed photo with a confirmed license name could be verified for Gadsden, Alabama in this pass, so this page ships without a hero photo rather than with a substitute image.