Budget Explorer · City of Grand Forks

Where the money comes from, and where it goes

Comparable revenue, spending, and debt for City of Grand Forks, 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 Grand Forks's own 2026 budget, in its own structure, follows below.

Audited actuals · Census classification · 59K residents

At a glance

Total revenue

$187M

$3,186 per resident

Total spending

$122M

$2,073 per resident

Spending per resident

$2,073

9th percentile of 71

Debt outstanding

$232M

$3,956 per resident · 52nd percentile of 70

Own-source share

71%

23rd percentile of 71

Capital share

21%

63rd percentile of 71

Where the money comes from

$187M 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$22M12%
General sales tax$32M17%
Selective sales taxes$5.8M3%
License & other taxes$4.1M2%
Federal aid$12M7%
State & local aid$38M20%
Charges & fees$29M15%
Interest, fines, other$30M16%
Utility revenue$15M8%

Own-source share of general revenue 71% · federal aid 7% · property tax is 35% of taxes

Where it goes

$122M 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$28M23%
Public safety$27M22%
Transportation$24M19%
General government$14M12%
Utilities (water, power, gas)$13M11%
Culture & recreation$6.9M6%
Interest on debt$6.8M6%
Health & hospitals$2.2M2%

Show top functions with operating vs. capital ▸

Function	Category	Operating	Capital	Total
Highways	Transportation	$5.7M	$8.2M	$14M
Police protection	Public safety	$13M	$13K	$13M
Sewerage	Environment & housing	$11M	$1.9M	$13M
Water utility	Utilities (water, power, gas)	$12M	$1.2M	$13M
Solid waste management	Environment & housing	$10M	$2.0M	$13M
Fire protection	Public safety	$9.1M	$582K	$9.6M
Transit	Transportation	$4.7M	$4.6M	$9.3M
General public buildings	General government	$2.4M	$3.1M	$5.5M
Protective inspection & regulation	Public safety	$4.2M	$225K	$4.4M
Libraries	Culture & recreation	$2.8M	$1.2M	$4.0M
Financial administration	General government	$2.8M	$996K	$3.8M
Parks & recreation	Culture & recreation	$2.9M	—	$2.9M
Health	Health & hospitals	$2.2M	—	$2.2M
Central staff services	General government	$2.2M	—	$2.2M

Trend · 3 fiscal years

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

Revenue

+27% over 2 yrs

$148M → $187M

Spending

+17% over 2 yrs

$104M → $122M

Debt outstanding

+8% over 2 yrs

$215M → $232M

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 Grand Forks	Cohort median	Percentile	Higher means
Spending per resident	$2,073	$3,741	9th	more spent per resident
Revenue per resident	$3,186	$3,548	39th	more raised per resident
Taxes per resident	$1,095	$1,328	32nd	heavier own-tax load
Debt per resident	$3,956	$3,865	52nd	more borrowed per resident
Own-source share of revenue	71%	81%	23rd	less dependent on aid
Federal aid share of revenue	7%	7%	54th	more exposed to federal cuts
Capital share of spending	21%	18%	63rd	more building, less operating
Interest share of spending	6%	4%	74th	more spend servicing debt
Debt ÷ annual revenue	1.24×	1.05×	66th	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 382035110222 (Grand Forks 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.

Adopted budget · 2026

City of Grand Forks'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 4 functions.

$54M total

Public Safety$30M55%
General Government$11M21%
Streets & Engineering$9.9M18%
Public Health$3.1M6%

Read from the city's online budget book, adopted version of September 15, 2025 — General Fund only.
The four functions sum exactly to the printed General Fund total of $54,113,159.
Department figures are not shown because the online table leaves out the police department while its Public Safety subtotal includes it, so the departments cannot be reconciled.
The city publishes its all-funds budget ($250,075,109) only by expense type, not by department or function.
Grand Forks's own website refuses non-browser clients; the budget book is hosted separately and was read in a browser.
Grand Forks budgets on a calendar year.
Source: 2026 Budget Book, General Fund (Expenditures by Function) (published budget book), retrieved 2026-09-13. Open the source document.

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