Oswego looks to put $4M general fund surplus towards capital improvement projects

Oswego village officials are looking to use a surplus of almost $4 million in the village’s general fund on capital improvement projects.

As it stands now, the village’s general fund is going to have a surplus of just under $4 million, Oswego Finance Director Andrea Lamberg told village trustees during the Feb. 4 Oswego Committee of the Whole meeting.

General fund revenues are at $20.2 million and expenses are at $16.2 million, she said.

As it was done last year, staff has recommended transferring the general fund surplus to the village’s capital improvement fund. How the funds will be used would be determined during the 2026 budget process.

“It could be used for Wolfs Crossing (improvements), for the new public works facility or for any number of projects that will be included in the 2026 budget,” Lamberg said.

Wolfs Crossing is a east-west corridor in Oswego that spans 4.5 miles, from Route 34 to Eola Road. The improvement project is divided into 10 segments.

The goal is to widen Wolfs Crossing from a two-lane rural road with no sidewalk to a five-lane urban cross section. In addition to that project, plans are to build a new public works facility to keep up with the village’s needs as it continues to grow.

Village trustee Tom Guist said he supports the idea of transferring the money to the capital improvement fund. However, he is concerned about the loss of revenue to the village when the state’s 1% grocery tax ends on Jan. 1, 2026.

Like other municipalities, Oswego receives a share of that tax.

“We haven’t really talked about what, if anything, we’re going to do about that,” Guist said.

Some of the expenses that were under budget in the fiscal year include snow removal, which was under budget by $250,000, Lamberg said.

Sales tax revenues, including home rule sales tax, was just more than $8 million.

“Just as a reminder, that’s the single largest source of revenue in the fund,” Lamberg told village trustees.

Of that number, about $2.7 million is home rule sales tax, she said. Oswego is a home rule community.

Sales tax revenues have increased from May 1 through Dec. 31 each year for the last 10 years, she said.

“This year, it was the highest that the village has had,” Lamberg said.

Oswego Village Administrator Dan Di Santo said the village doesn’t want to keep the surplus in the general fund reserve.

“Because then if we take it out at a later date, that could hurt our bond rating,” he said. “So it’s our strong recommendation that we put it somewhere other than in the general fund reserve...The main idea is that we want to get it out of that general fund reserve so that it’s accessible and doesn’t hurt us.”

In other funds, revenues for the village’s water and sewer fund came in at $6.8 million and expenses were at $6.4 million, resulting in about a $423,000 surplus for the fund.

“The water fund revenue being over budget is primarily because the water volume was greater than expected,” Lamberg said. “That will only increase the revenue side, it doesn’t change the expenditure side right now.”

In the capital improvement fund, there is a revenue surplus of $128,230. Expenses are under budget by almost $1.9 million.

“That’s really just a timing issue,” Lamberg said. “A lot of this budget is for Wolfs Crossing and it’s very hard to predict down to that level what will be done in any given year.”