(5/21) Thurmont presented the Town Budget for fiscal year 2024, starting July 1, throughout their meetings in May including a public hearing on May 23. The council will be voting to adopt the budget on May 30.

Chief Financial Officer Linda Joyce presented the draft on May 2 for review by the Town Council before being formally introduced on May 16.

Revenue within the general fund budget is increasing to $5,016,075, an increase of about a quarter of a million dollars. This budget includes grants, fees and fines in addition to taxes.

The tax rate included in the draft budget was debated by the commissioners throughout the meetings.

The draft budget expects to use the current tax rate, which is also the current constant yield tax rate, at 0.3206 per 100 dollars of assessed value. The new constant yield tax rate, however will be 0.3113 per 100 dollars. With keeping the tax rate, the Town will yield $58,125 in expected revenue.

"we do have families who are struggling. Even though this is negligible as far as costs go, it’s not for some people." "I think, this year, we should at least consider taking that $58,000 from our reserves. We can’t continue with the constant yield"

The commissioners also discussed the raising prices because of inflation in addition to the rise in Frederick County taxes and its impact on residents’ budgets. It’ll be nice for us to go down a little bit," Commissioner Bill Blakeslee said, referring to potentially lowering the tax rate to the new constant yield rate.

Chief Administrative Officer Jim Humerick mentioned that when they collect information for the budget, they request that the department heads submit their needs not wants. Joyce also pointed out that the tax rate in the budget is similar to that of surrounding municipalities. "We provide a lot more services than several of those municipalities," Mayor John Kinnaird said.

These services include those through parks and recreation, public safety, streets, planning and zoning, etc. In the new fiscal year, the Town plans to spend on several projects and improvements including state mandated body worn cameras for the public safety department, engineering and design for Community Park Tennis Courts and various streets and a skid loader hammer.

On the other hand, revenue for the water fund is expected to decrease slightly. For the 2023 fiscal year, the budget for water fund revenue is 1,060,300, a decrease from $1,062,150 the previous year. After operating expenditures, there’s expected to be an excess in the water fund budget of $184,800. Revenue includes fees for service, charges for building, contract work, etc.

Water Fund Capital includes a new wireless radio control system to replace the aging system in place, engineering and design for water main replacements in town, new meters, etc.

The wastewater fund budget includes similar revenue as the water fund, though the former is expected to yield $1,752,800 in revenue. Like the water fund, the wastewater fund’s expenses largely are made up of employee salaries and materials/supplies for maintaining the structures and testing for bacteria. The wastewater fund budget is expected to have an excess of $204,771 after expenditures.

Within the wastewater fund capital, the budget includes money for a new electric box, roof replacements and a new control panel. A new generator for Well 7 Pump Station is budgeted under both the water and wastewater funds, using $80,000 apiece from the budget.