Mayor & Commission Meetings

FY26 Manager Budget Update (aka “Big Rocks”) Tuesday, March 25, 2025 3:00 p.m. City Hall Commission Chamber, 301 College Ave 3:00 Manager leads discussion of FY26 budget issues FY26 General Fund 'Big Rocks' March 24, 2025  PURPOSE The purpose of this General Fund Big Rocks presentation is to inform the Mayor and Commission of major expenditure or revenue challenges, changes or other issues (aka “Big Rocks”) potentially impacting the upcoming budget and future budgets. At this stage in the budget development process, departments have submitted operating and capital requests, preliminary estimates for pay and benefit costs have been developed and preliminary estimates for revenues have been generated. The Mayor and Commission were introduced to early estimates of revenue and likely challenges at retreats in September and January. The Acting Manager met and reviewed budget requests with department directors, and the Acting Manager, staff advisors, Mayor and Mayor Pro Tem met and reviewed budget requests with constitutional / elected department heads. The Mayor & Commission approved Strategic Plan for FY25 in March 2024 and will see a draft FY26-FY28 plan at April's work session. This will help guide decision making throughout the budget process.  REVENUES, EXPENDITURES*, DEFICIT FY25 (estimated) FY26 (Manager Proposed) Revenues and Transfers In: $189,254,208 $198,344,309 Expenditures and Transfers Out: -$203,593,882 -$201,617,508 Net Change in Fund Balance (Deficit) -$14,339,674 -$3,273,199 *Manager's recommended budget  NEW INITIATIVES, ADDITIONAL OPERATING FUNDS, CAPITAL: REQUESTS VERSUS RECOMMENDED Ten of 104 FY26 General Capital requests were funded in the Manager's budget recommendation. General Capital requests totaled $26,258,432. The Manager's recommended total is $6,987,500, or 26.6%.  CURRENT RECOMMENDED BIG ROCKS TO FUND (Manager's proposed, General Fund only) Item Amount Public Safety Step Plan Pay Table Adjustment (3%) $1,732,000 Unified Pay Plan Market Increase (4%) $1,348,000 Public Safety Step Increase $740,000 Increase in Insurance Claims $466,000 General & Vehicle Liability Insurance Increase $393,000 Unified Pay Plan Table Adjustment (3%) $213,000 Fleet Replacement Fund Increased Contributions $200,000 Jail Medical Contract Annual Increase (3%) $177,000 Streetlight Electricity & Utility Cost Increase $165,000 Narcan & AED Supplies $72,500 Excess Cyber Insurance $5M Additional Coverage $66,000 $5,572,500  UNASSIGNED, UNALLOCATED FUND BALANCE Trend in Unassigned Fund Balance: the table below shows the decline in unassigned General Fund Balance as a % of expenditures and transfers out. At least $3.5M of fund balance is estimated to be needed to balance the FY26 Budget, keeping the % of unassigned fund balance above the 16.7% reserve minimum.  FUTURE CONSIDERATIONS WITH BUDGET IMPACT • Unfunded/underfunded operating impacts from SPLOST/TSPLOST projects: East Side Library about $1M once in operation • Energy Franchise Tax revenue: $2.509M (FY26, estimated) • Hotel/Motel Tax set-aside for Arena bonds ($150K reduction in expected transfer to General Fund • Fleet Replacement • TAD Impact to Tax Digest (estimated increment is $1.7M for FY25) • Unified Pay Plan, Sheriff's Office, & Fire compensation studies QUESTIONS?