MANSFIELD — Kelly Converse stopped short of raising a financial red flag Tuesday night for members of City Council.
But the city’s finance director clearly sent a cautionary message to local lawmakers when it comes to Mansfield’s top revenue stream.
“Just to give you some year-end highlights financially … income taxes met 100 percent of our budget and expectations,” Converse said.
“However, they came in 2.4 percent lower than (2024),” she said.
“Because income tax is our largest revenue source and closely tied to employment levels and wage growth, even modest year-over-year softening is something we monitor carefully,” Converse said.
“At this point, this does not indicate a fiscal emergency, but it does suggest we may be entering a period of economic cooling, rather than expansion,” she said.
Local lawmakers approved the city’s temporary budget in December and a final plan must be approved by the end of March.
In November, Mayor Jodie Perry unveiled Nov. 18 what she called a “responsible” financial blueprint for 2026, one which calls for $37.7 million in general fund spending next year.
That’s about $325,000 less than was budgeted for 2025, according to the mayor and Converse. The 2025 budget called for $38.1 million in general fund spending.
During a council meeting in December, Perry said she had to trim about $8 million from department budget requests for 2026, with about about $3 million coming from a requested capital improvement project at Mansfield Lahm Regional Airport.
During that same session a month ago, Converse said she expected 2026 city revenue, largely based on income taxes, to be flat when compared to 2025.
“Income tax revenue (this year) is flat (compared to 2024), but that’s only because of the Water Main Initiative money that’s been added. Otherwise, it’s in a period of slight decline.
“For next year, we estimated conservatively, like we always do. We used a three-year average of the last three years to determine where we think income taxes might come in next year and other taxes, as well,” the finance director said in December.
The finance director had a slightly different message for lawmakers Tuesday night.
“With regards to the estimated revenue for the final budget, we will have to revise our calculations,” Converse said.
She said city departments had demonstrated “strong budget discipline” and “spending remains below appropriations across the board with year-over-year increases tracking within expected ranges.”
“There’s been no runaway growth or red-flag variances,” Converse said.
The finance director said her department is carrying several vacant positions.
“These positions are being actively managed and all statutory payroll and revenue functions continue without disruption. In light of the economic softening I just mentioned, we are being thoughtful about the timing and sequencing of those hires,” Converse said.
It’s not the first time Converse, who took office in January 2024, has cautioned council about lagging income tax revenue. During meetings in May and June 2025, Converse discussed the issue, though questioned if it was linked to changes at the state level in business net profit tax collections.
In other action Tuesday, City Council:
— accepted a $20,000 grant from the Ohio Emergency Management Agency for cybersecurity services.
— accepted a $13,380 TechCred grant from the Ohio Dept. of Development to reimburse the city for training.
— accepted a $2,500 donation from Worner Roofing for the Mansfield Police Dept. neighborhood impact section.
— accepted a $5,000 grant from the Factory Mutual Insurance Co. for fire services, which Chief Dan Crow said would be used for iPads in vehicles.
— accepted a $50,000 donation from the Gorman Family Foundation to be used by the police and fire departments.
— approved the city engineer’s plans for road resurfacing and also water main replacements in 2026.
— approved termination of a storm sewer easement agreement in the Valley View Allotment.
— approved the demolition of condemned structures at 205 Lexington Ave. and 566 Reed St.
— approved a “then-and-now” certificate to pay $7,279.84 to ES Consulting. According to the legislation, the city’s permitting and development office contracted the company for services on Dec. 19, 2025, prior to submitting a purchase order. The purchase order was completed Dec. 31.
— approved a plan to allow the public works director to enter into a contract to restore the Liberty Park bathhouse.
— approved spending $277,529 to buy a John Deere 624 P-Tier Wheel Loader from Murphy Tractor and Equipment Co. in Brunswick, Ohio, for use at the water treatment plant.
— approved a letter of intent to negotiate and execute a conservation easement donation agreement for the “preservation of the scenic, natural, aesthetic and educational resource” with the West Creek Conservancy. The property is located along Bowers Road in Springfield Township.