City Government The FY2024 Budget is Taking Shape

At the City Council Work Session held on Thursday, April 27th, I presented the first draft of the Fiscal Year 2024 Budget, which runs from July 1, 2023, to June 30, 2024. The revenues and expenditures that were presented will change between now and the end of this fiscal year. However, we feel confident that what we are presenting is within our usual conservative projections. The Budget Documents such as the Statement of Revenues and Expenditures, Revenue Sources, and Capital Budget will be made available on the City’s website under the Finance Department tab.

The City of Chattahoochee Hills initiates its formal budget process in mid-February to ensure time for an inclusive and transparent process while allowing the governing body the time to review projected revenues and anticipated expenditures prior to adopting the annual budget. That adoption takes place before the beginning of the fiscal year, July 1. Public meetings are also held to inform the citizenry, and to provide opportunities for public input.

Each department director met with the City Manager to review their respective budget requests. Each request was evaluated by the City Manager according to the priority specified by the department director and available funding.

The Mayor, Finance Director, and I have held meetings with those elected officials who were interested in reviewing the projected revenues and anticipated expenditures making sure each member of the governing body has access to the same information and discussion items during this process. The first reading and public hearing on the FY2024 Budget is scheduled for June 6th. The second reading and budget adoption will be scheduled later in June at a special-called advertised virtual meeting using the Zoom platform.

The FY2024 Budget reflects an increase from FY2023 from $10,366,767 to $10,723,828 (3.4%).

The General Fund is increasing from $4,179,747 to $4,661,988 (11.5%). This is primarily attributed to a higher anticipation in property taxes as well as sales (L.O.S.T.) and use taxes.

The Debt Service Fund will increase 36% from $203,541 to $275,923 because we still have one more year/payment for the public works equipment purchased six years ago, and we added the Fire Pumper Truck with

Robert T. Rokovitz, MPA, ICMA-CM

the first payment due November 2023.

The Hotel Motel Fund is showing a decrease from $487,609 to $377,633. This decrease is due to the proper spending of the fund balance that is not supposed to exist in this fund. I have an itemized spreadsheet of where all these monies are allocated. This year, 43.75% of all collections will be going to our very own Convention and Visitors Bureau (CHCVB).

The Grants Fund is decreasing from $1,431,017 to $1,054,996 as we have been spending the State and Local Federal Relief Funds (SLFRF) funded through ARPA. We received a total of $1,239,062 from the Federal government and have spent $409,258 on employee recruitment and retention bonuses as well as capital improvement projects at city hall. We estimated the expenditure for bonuses to be around $324,400. We are right at $313,500 with these bonuses ending April 2023. These funds must be obligated by December 31, 2024, and spent by December 31, 2025.

The Capital Fund is increasing from $1,361,715 to $1,797,818 (32%) since we allocated more of our reserves to pay for capital equipment and roadway repair and maintenance.

The TSPLOST Fund is increasing from $785,000 to $1,723,865. This increase is based on the current fund balance, the additional collections through the end of this fiscal year, and the collections in next fiscal year through June of 2024. We intend to spend $1.2M of these funds along with a match of $1.2M from the Capital reserves on a $2.4M TSPLOST project to be completed by year end (December 2023).

Lastly, the reserve for contingency is being reduced from $1,867,811 to $968,476 to allocate funds to the aforementioned TSPLOST project.

This budget includes funding made available to maintain city services while continuing to make strategic reinvestments in our infrastructure.

The table below illustrates increases and decreases in each fund category.