Budget Explorer · City of Columbus
Comparable revenue, spending, and debt for City of Columbus, 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 Dec 31, 2023. City of Columbus's own 2026 budget, in its own structure, follows below.
Total revenue
$2.70B
$2,970 per resident
Total spending
$2.88B
$3,172 per resident
Spending per resident
$3,172
42nd percentile of 71
Debt outstanding
—
Own-source share
87%
74th percentile of 71
Capital share
23%
71st percentile of 71
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.
Own-source share of general revenue 87% · federal aid 8% · property tax is 6% of taxes
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.
| Function | Category | Operating | Capital | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Police protection | Public safety | $384M | $10.0M | $394M |
| Sewerage | Environment & housing | $132M | $192M | $324M |
| Fire protection | Public safety | $307M | $5.8M | $313M |
| Highways | Transportation | $124M | $173M | $297M |
| Parks & recreation | Culture & recreation | $217M | $64M | $281M |
| Water utility | Utilities (water, power, gas) | $113M | $128M | $241M |
| General (unallocable) | General government | $164M | $44M | $208M |
| Financial administration | General government | $127M | — | $127M |
| Housing & community development | Environment & housing | $109M | $10M | $119M |
| Electric utility | Utilities (water, power, gas) | $83M | $8.3M | $92M |
| Health | Health & hospitals | $76M | $29K | $76M |
| Judicial & legal | General government | $66M | $37K | $66M |
| Solid waste management | Environment & housing | $56M | $4.8M | $60M |
| Central staff services | General government | $58M | $305K | $58M |
Nominal dollars. The Census Bureau cautions that single-government series are edited only for aggregates — read direction, not decimals.
Revenue
+8% over 2 yrs
$2.50B → $2.70B
Spending
+21% over 2 yrs
$2.39B → $2.88B
Debt outstanding
+3% over 2 yrs
$5.18B → $5.33B
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 Columbus | Cohort median | Percentile | Higher means |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spending per resident | $3,172 | $3,741 | 42nd | more spent per resident |
| Revenue per resident | $2,970 | $3,548 | 30th | more raised per resident |
| Taxes per resident | $1,411 | $1,328 | 58th | heavier own-tax load |
| Debt per resident | — | $3,865 | — | more borrowed per resident |
| Own-source share of revenue | 87% | 81% | 74th | less dependent on aid |
| Federal aid share of revenue | 8% | 7% | 64th | more exposed to federal cuts |
| Capital share of spending | 23% | 18% | 71st | more building, less operating |
| Interest share of spending | 6% | 4% | 75th | more spend servicing debt |
| Debt ÷ annual revenue | — | 1.05× | — | more leveraged |
Spot an error, or know a better source for this place's adopted budget? Suggest an edit on the assessment.
Enacted budget · 2026
City of Columbus's own budget, in its own structure, read from the workbook its budget office publishes 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 36 departments.
Looking for how this fits City of Columbus's capacity to deliver? The fiscal dimension, binding constraint, and pathways live in the City of Columbus capacity assessment.
The Civic Infrastructure Diagnostic Framework’s structural elements — the four cluster labels, the six capacity dimensions, and the binding-constraint framing — are licensed under CC BY 4.0. Anyone may use or adapt them with attribution. Tool implementation and full article text © 2026 JTV Advisory LLC.