Public Hearing on City Budget June 20th
On Tuesday, June 20th, the City Council will hold a public hearing on the City's Proposed FY2024 Budget and FY24-28 Capital Improvement Plan (CIP). The hearing will take place at 7pm in City Council Chambers and is also accessible by Zoom. The hearing will be followed by a special meeting of the City Council in which they will vote on approval of the Budget and CIP. More information can be found here.
The Council may vote to amend the budget by cutting funding to line items, but they may not add to the budget. The Public Hearing allows an opportunity for residents to voice their opinion on the budget and anything they believe should or should not be funded. The Hearing is also open to comment on the CIP, which outlines the projects the City plans to take on in the coming years, along with funding sources and estimated budget impact.
This budget is built to a 2.2% increase in the property tax limit, based on the preference to not encroach on the full 2.5% increase allowable by law. The general fund budget includes expenditures of over $82.8M and is balanced by over $14M in local receipts and $68.5M in tax levy. This budget devotes significant resources to our public schools, public safety, and the Department of Public Services, which are the main drivers of the budget every year. The Mayor is recommending investments in major capital projects through DPS in order to secure the City's infrastructure, including our water supply, and there are also two new positions that will help with this work. One is an assistant engineer, who will also bring additional capacity to the engineering department particularly for watershed protection and roadway design and construction projects. The other is a chemist/environmental analyst in the Water Treatment Plant.
The Mayor is also recommending increased investment in Information Technology and in the Planning Department. IT has not received adequate investments in recent years, and these new proposed investments include a major capital project to rebuild our data center, and operating budget expenses to improve our cybersecurity and digital operations. This work was recommended in the IT audit performed last year by an external agency, and has been spearheaded by IT Director, James Pope. The Planning Department is in need of additional capacity to lead on major zoning initiatives, as well as to implement the recommendations of the Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy. The Mayor is recommending the addition of a Community and Economic Development Manager who will be able to drive this work with initiatives on branding and marketing, land use, small business assistance, and more.
We hope to see you at the City's budget hearing. You can find more about the budget here.