(4/12) In preparation for the City's FY-25 annual budget, the City Council was briefed on expected review and expenditures to allow them to ensure spending priorities were correct and all revenues covers expended outlays. As currently proposed, the budget is balanced without need to raise taxes.
The Proposed City’s General Fund budget calls for revenues of $8,052,296 of which $4,567,423 comes from local and state taxes. While the current property tax rate will remain unchanged from last year, tax revenue is expected to increase by $265,955 due to increases in property assessments. County revenue sharing, estimated to be $644,518, will be finalized after the County Budget is adopted. Revenue form the State’s Highway User program is estimated to be $510,364.
The General Fund expenditures will be $8,052,296. Recurring expenses include big-ticket amounts for Public Safety at $2,413,516 to cover the department being fully staffed for FY25 versus FY24. With a full staff, training courses, equipment purchases and salaries all increase in cost. The Streets department expects $1,598,981 in expenditures to include work that Carroll County does and bills to the town. The work includes street light repairs, line painting and repairs to the shop building.
General Fund Capital Outlay projects include $2,094,143 for projects around the City including but not limited to the Street portion of the West View Drive water main project, the Merry Go Round replacement and the highly anticipated Splash Pad at Memorial Park.
Contributions to the non-police employee pension system will increase by $24,074 over the FY24 budget. Contributions to police pensions will increase by $132,500, the increase is a result of the City anticipating the Police Department being fully staffed in FY-25. The FY-24 police pension contribution was low due to high staff turnover. An anticipated 10.76% increase in health insurance benefits is also implemented in the draft budget.
The Utility Fund budget revenues are projected to include $1 million from water service fees and $1,975,000 from sewer service fees. The City does not plan to increase water or sewer fees in FY-25.
Capital Outley from the Utility Fund included $1,200,000 for the West View Drive water line replacement $1,225,000 for a sewer replacement on West Baltimore Street.
A three percent salary increase for staff and a three percent Cost of Living pay increase was introduced with the draft budget requiring re-allocation of the funds between the General Fund and the Utility Fund. Staff Salaries and fringe benefits are typically split in some fashion between the General and the Utility Funds.
"We have made adjustments to what we pay to try and be competitive to attract and retain our police officers, but we have not done the same for the other city employees," said Wieprecht when Councilwoman Judith Fuller asked about the salary increase.
"We’re not being fair to the employees that have been around longer," she said. Councilwoman Diane Foster agreed saying, "It would be nice to reward the loyal employees for once." Wieprecht responded that because of inflation, "We still are not caught up with the inflation rate from the last few years."
Mayor Pro Tem James McCarron suggested having department heads evaluate their employees and reward the best performing ones accordingly editing the increase given based on performance. Wieprecht said they can investigate doing that but not everyone's role is the same so it's a challenge.
