Budget Explorer · City of Columbia

Where the money comes from, and where it goes

Comparable revenue, spending, and debt for City of Columbia, on the same Census classification used for every city, county, and state in the Library — so the figures line up with peers rather than with the government's own budget book. Latest year: FY ending Jun 30, 2024. City of Columbia's own FY2027 budget, in its own structure, follows below.

Audited actuals · Census classification · 140K residents

At a glance

Total revenue

$496M

$3,548 per resident

Total spending

$502M

$3,595 per resident

Spending per resident

$3,595

49th percentile of 71

Debt outstanding

$951M

$6,809 per resident · 74th percentile of 70

Own-source share

75%

30th percentile of 71

Capital share

25%

75th percentile of 71

Where the money comes from

$496M total

Own-source revenue (taxes, charges, interest) versus aid from other governments. Utility and trust revenue are shown alongside general revenue but run on their own books.

Property tax$49M10%
Selective sales taxes$39M8%
License & other taxes$34M7%
Federal aid$16M3%
State & local aid$79M16%
Charges & fees$101M20%
Interest, fines, other$57M11%
Utility revenue$121M24%

Own-source share of general revenue 75% · federal aid 4% · property tax is 40% of taxes

Where it goes

$502M total

Current operations plus capital outlay, grouped by Census function. Interest on debt and transfers to other governments are broken out so they are not hidden inside services.

Environment & housing$159M32%
Public safety$112M22%
Utilities (water, power, gas)$82M16%
General government$67M13%
Interest on debt$34M7%
Culture & recreation$25M5%
Transportation$17M3%
Public welfare$2.5M1%
Health & hospitals$2.5M1%
Transfers to other governments$1.4M0%

Show top functions with operating vs. capital ▸

Function	Category	Operating	Capital	Total
Sewerage	Environment & housing	$57M	$77M	$134M
Water utility	Utilities (water, power, gas)	$50M	$32M	$82M
Fire protection	Public safety	$56M	$360K	$57M
Police protection	Public safety	$53M	$313K	$53M
General (unallocable)	General government	$32M	—	$32M
Parks & recreation	Culture & recreation	$15M	$9.6M	$25M
Central staff services	General government	$13M	$2.7M	$16M
Solid waste management	Environment & housing	$13M	—	$13M
Highways	Transportation	$6.5M	$3.7M	$10M
Housing & community development	Environment & housing	$8.4M	—	$8.4M
General public buildings	General government	$7.4M	$147K	$7.5M
Financial administration	General government	$6.8M	—	$6.8M
Parking	Transportation	$5.5M	$977K	$6.4M
Judicial & legal	General government	$5.1M	—	$5.1M

Trend · 3 fiscal years

Nominal dollars. The Census Bureau cautions that single-government series are edited only for aggregates — read direction, not decimals.

Revenue

+17% over 2 yrs

$424M → $496M

Spending

+5% over 2 yrs

$479M → $502M

Debt outstanding

+8% over 2 yrs

$880M → $951M

How it compares · 71 cities and counties in the Library

Percentile within the cohort on each place's latest Census year. Higher is not better — the last column says what a high reading means so you can decide whether it matters here.

Measure	City of Columbia	Cohort median	Percentile	Higher means
Spending per resident	$3,595	$3,741	49th	more spent per resident
Revenue per resident	$3,548	$3,548	50th	more raised per resident
Taxes per resident	$876	$1,328	18th	heavier own-tax load
Debt per resident	$6,809	$3,865	74th	more borrowed per resident
Own-source share of revenue	75%	81%	30th	less dependent on aid
Federal aid share of revenue	4%	7%	30th	more exposed to federal cuts
Capital share of spending	25%	18%	75th	more building, less operating
Interest share of spending	7%	4%	81st	more spend servicing debt
Debt ÷ annual revenue	1.92×	1.05×	89th	more leveraged

About this data

Census classification categories, not this government's own budget structure. Figures are audited actuals for the fiscal year shown, not the adopted budget.
The Census Bureau edits unit-level data only to produce state and national aggregates and advises against reading it as a precise time series for any single government; treat year-over-year moves under ~5% as noise.
Employee-retirement-system revenue is excluded (published separately by Census). Utility and insurance-trust revenue are shown separately from general revenue.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances (Individual Unit public-use files), unit 452079174959 (Columbia City). Retrieved 2026-09-07. Classification manual.

Spot an error, or know a better source for this place's adopted budget? Suggest an edit on the assessment.

Approved budget · FY2027

City of Columbia's own budget, in its own structure, read from its published budget book and checked against the total the document itself prints. This is the current year — more recent than the Census series above, but only comparable to this city's own history. Totals cover 32 departments.

$178M total

Police$53M30%
Fire$28M16%
Public Works$24M14%
Parks & Recreation$17M9%
Capital Lease Purchase Payment$9.2M5%
Information Technology$5.2M3%
General Services$5.0M3%
911 Emergency Communications$4.9M3%
Reserve Cola/merit$4.0M2%
Planning & Dev. Services$3.5M2%
Municipal Court$3.2M2%
Homeless Services$3.0M2%
All other (20)$18M10%

Parsed from the published budget book (pages 41-41) — General Fund departments and non-departmental spending, before transfers out.
Figures are checked against the total the document itself prints before publishing.
General Fund only. Columbia publishes a separate department table for each fund; all funds together come to $500,576,265.
Excludes $25.3M of transfers out to other funds.
Includes a $4M reserve for cost-of-living and merit increases, which the city counts among its departments.
Columbia calls its adopted budget 'approved'.
Source: FY2026-27 Approved Budget (General Fund Summary) (published budget book), retrieved 2026-09-13. Open the source document.

Looking for how this fits City of Columbia's capacity to deliver? The fiscal dimension, binding constraint, and pathways live in the City of Columbia capacity assessment.