City Council - Regular Meeting

Thank you. Thank

you. Good morning.

There's a yeah. One tweet. Yeah. That's one tweet. Yeah. Just one tweet. It's intentional. It's boy this season, I try to hide.

Alright. Good morning, everyone. We will get started in just a moment. We are uploading the presentation to get kick things off. So, just give us a few minutes, and then we'll get started.

You're up? Is it up there yet? Yep. Okay.

Alright. Good morning, everyone. I am council member Jason Winston. The time is now 10:03 on Tuesday, 05/05/2026. And today, we are kicking off the city council review of the mayor's proposed f y twenty seven municipal budget.

I am joined by vice chair Alex Wan of the finance executive committee and my other colleagues joining today. We have council president Marcy Colliola Street, council members Amos, Dozier, Worthy, Norwood, and Westmoreland. Other council members will be cycling in and out as their schedules permit during the hearings. For today's schedule, the department of finance will lead today's review with the fiscal condition condition of the city, budget development process, nondepartmental capital and trust funds, debt service, cash pool, and investments. Colleagues will break for lunch at noon and continue with unions.

Ask me at 1PM, followed by PACE at 01:30, and we'll have lastly, we'll have the International Associate Association of Firefighters at 2PM. And after them, we will have the International Brotherhood of Police at 02:30. For the listening public, an electronic copy of the budget book and all presentations can be found under the proposed f y twenty seven budget tab on the finance executive committee page of the city council website and on the city of Atlanta's department of finance page. At the completion of each topic, council members will be asked be able to ask questions. With that, we will turn it over to our CEO COO, Lashandra Burks, and chief financial officer, mister Muhammad Bala, to introduce their team who's joining us today.

Thank you.

Thank you, and thank you, chair Winston. So good morning. Good morning, council president, chair Winston, vice chair Juan, members of council. I'm Mohammed Bala, chief financial officer, for the city of Atlanta. And today, we'll be going over the fiscal condition of the city and lay out the framework for the f y twenty seven proposed budget.

Before I get started, we wanna acknowledge, the team that made the work possible. CEO Birx, chairman Winston, deputy Carr, chief Davis and the revenue team, chief Gabriel and the entire budget office. This is a product of real collaboration. So what you'll see today is a joint effort between the department of finance and the COO's office, a clear eyed look, at where the city stands fiscally and as we head in f y twenty seven. If you'll advance to the agenda, please.

Today, we'll move through an overall financial outlook, key economic trends, and forecasting and budgeting approach and major considerations, shaping the upcoming year. You'll go to the guiding principles. The f y twenty seven budget is built on three pillars, strong financial stewardship, operational efficiency, and genuine commitment to equity. We're focused on structural balance, maintaining service levels while preserving the flexibility to respond to change changing economic conditions. The overall $3,200,000,000 budget remains stable and well managed even as we navigate pressures to the general fund.

We're absorbing broader economic pressures and and actively adjusting operations to improve efficiency without sacrificing, what residents depend on. Slide five, please. The proposed $3,200,000,000 f y twenty seven budget reflects a 3% increase over f y twenty six. This is driven by strategic investments and real costs of inflation across operations. The slide before you breaks the operate operating budget down by fund, general, aviation, and watershed are the three largest and tell the biggest story.

The level of growth is necessary to sustain core operations while maintaining the financial discipline, this council expects. Next slide. The city's net position as our both in both governmental and business activities remain strong. This reflects consistent responsible management of our funds, mainly also our enterprise funds, particularly aviation and watershed, which are highlighted. One number I wanna make sure that doesn't get lost today is governmental activities net position, which in the slide you see has moved from negative 395,000,000 in f y twenty one to a positive 784,000,000 f y twenty five.

That number was 622,000,000 negative in f y twenty. So this is a fundamental shift in the city's financial footing, and it didn't happen by accident. Next slide. This highlights the historical general fund expenditures. The general fund expenditures have grown in step with service demand, workforce investments, and inflationary pressures across the board.

We monitor these trends closely and work hard to align spending with sustainable revenue levels. The FY '25 increase deserves a specific context. It was driven by workforce investments, cost of living adjustments, class and comp adjustments, increased headcount in public safety, and other essential positions. These were deliberate necessary investments in the people who deliver services to the to to the city. I'll, go over some of the national, economic landscapes.

So f y '25, we avoided a recession, but it was definitely the word of the year. Tariffs, were widespread, markets froze, business planning, and they're not going away. Fed cut rates three times to protect labor markets and ended up landing about three and a half to 3.75%. The Iran conflict is a new wildcard. Oil prices, inflation, recession risks all went up.

The Fed is now in a tight spot between needing to cut rates, but inflation also is sticky. Next slide. In terms of, labor markets, we have seen them to lag. I think the biggest shock was in February where we unexpectedly lost 92,000 jobs. Over the last year since we were here, we talked about liberation day.

Job growth really hasn't recovered since that period in time. In fact, we going back to 2024, we crossed a 100,000 jobs added six times. But in the last nine months, that's only happened once. So unemployment still, high for four and a half and drifting upwards, and we're watching it closely. Slide 11, please.

In terms of consumer sentiment, again, it continues to lag. In fact, the University of Michigan survey hit its lowest point in March 2026. The Iran Military Conflict erased a lot of gains seen earlier in the year. Gas prices hit consumers immediately, and broader price pass throughs and inflation is still uncertain. So inflation is now expected at 3.4% above pre pandemic norms and rising. When people expect inflation, behaviors change, and that's a real risk.

We'll go on to talk a

little bit about Georgia. And Georgia's economy right now is comparable to the national levels. So Terry College annual outlook is notably more subdued than last year, slow growth, less momentum. For the first time in recent memory, Georgia is not expected to outpace the nation. GDP and job growth protected is expected to to match The US and not beat it.

Three main drivers here is less consumer confidence, fewer larger projects in the pipeline, and demographics that are no longer working our favor. So Georgia depends on global trade more than most states, so tariffs and trade tensions hit us harder. Terry, puts recession risk at 40% higher than most national forecasts. And they're warning, if a recession comes alongside a major market correction, it will be longer and deeper than average. The one upside scenario here is there could be a meaningful pullback on tariffs and immigration policy.

So if that happens, that could change the outlook for Georgia. I'll spend a little bit of time on Atlanta specific markets. Atlanta, the job growth continues to track the national level, but our composition of our economy is is a real advantage here. Heavy construction, I have a heavy concentration in services such as IT, health care, life science sectors that are largely insulated from tariffs benefits Atlanta. We have an educated workforce, that supports tech and logistics, which works in our favor.

None of the top 10 employers are federal, so that is a good buffer for Atlanta. And high-tech jobs make up six and a half percent of Atlanta employment above Georgia at 4.7% and The US at 5.3%. So Atlanta leans on domestic trade more than global markets. Again, less tariff exposure benefits Atlanta. Cost of doing business remains below national average and has been consistently like that since 2008.

So the bottom line is Atlanta's economy is well diversified, domestically oriented, and structurally positioned to weather the current environment better than most. In terms of, the next slide, which is highlighting Atlanta's income and employment. Growth has slowed compared to last year's projection, but Atlanta still outpaces the nation on metrics that matter. So personal income is projected to grow at 5.4% annually through 2031 versus 4.8 for The US. Employment growth projected just under 1% a year, well ahead of the national average of point 4%.

And on federal restructuring list, Atlanta is relatively well insulated. Again, government jobs at all levels combined for only 12 of metro employment versus 15% nationally. Next slide. Finally, just before I turn it over to miss Carr, wanted to highlight some of the risks that Atlanta faces. So the markets and k shaped economy.

So stock market volatility is a concern as a lot of consumption is being fueled by market gains. A correction could hit spending fast. Meanwhile, a weak job market limits growth on the other end. High-tech startups are rate sensitive. So venture capital availability has tightened.

Near term, high-tech hiring has, limited growth. This improves over time, but not quickly. Another point for us is immigration. 14.3% of Atlanta's population is an immigrant population. So more restrictive enforcement directly constrains our labor market and economic expansion, again, on federal cuts.

So Georgia Tech ranked sixteenth nationally in federal r and d funding, about $1,400,000,000 in 2023. Cuts there could mean fewer research jobs and weaker innovation pipeline, and tariffs continue to be a point of constraint here. So timber, steel, aluminum tariffs could hit our construction industry, an industry that's already facing pressures from interest rates and other disadvantages. So the bottom line is Atlanta's fundamentals are solid, but these are not theoretical risks. Several are already showing up in our data, and I will hand it over to Ms.

Carr to go over the rest of the Atlanta story.

Thank you, CFO Bala. So as CFO Bala mentioned, we looked at things at a national level, a state level, and now we're gonna focus on Atlanta. We know that whatever happens has a ripple effect, but Atlanta has a lot going for itself. And so having said that, I wanna talk a little bit about some things on this slide. We're number six in the metropolitan area, and we are still growing fast.

We have strategic locations, world class infrastructure, tech, logistics, film, and health care, just to name a few. We also have Georgia Tech and Emory anchor highly educated workforce, diverse talent pipeline that businesses can actually use. We also have seen population growth. It is real with the population growth here in Atlanta. So the bottom line is these headwinds are real for Atlanta.

We are growing, and we are growing fast, and it's the best place to be. So I wanted to focus on the next slide talking about some of the things that we have going. We are number one for the number one to start a career, the best place to live, the top city grads, and the most educated city in the country. These aren't metrics. These are real because the workforce here is real.

The bottom line is that Atlanta isn't just growing. It's being recognized as one of the best places in the country to build a life and a business. If we look at the next slide so the next slide, we wanted to talk about the workforce and the education. I think CFO Bala talked about that previously. But when you look at it, we have a lot of colleges and universities here in Atlanta. We have Georgia Tech here, which is a global leader in engineering. We have I see we have a fan of tech here. We have Emory University. Okay. We have another one. Alright. We have Morehouse.

Go Morehouse.

I'm waiting. I'm waiting here. So we have Morehouse, Spelman, and Clark, HBCU. We also have Georgia State. So go up Georgia State. So that's real. Go Panthers. One of the interesting things about this is Georgia State, and I'm only focusing on Georgia State because I graduated from Georgia State. First generation college graduates, that would be me. And so that's what Georgia State does, and so I'm proud to have, you know, been a part of that.

Agnes Scott, Kennesaw, Mercer, just to name a few. The bottom line is companies don't just come to Atlanta for the advantages, tax related in the airport. They come because talent is here, and it's being replenished every year. It is truly world class. The next slide I wanted to talk about is this is really exciting here.

You know, all the things that we're doing here in the city. You can see some of the things we've done. We hosted the Super Bowl in 2019. 2025, we had the college football national championship and March Madness. We also have the World Cup in 2026, and we are also scheduled to host the Super Bowl in 2028 and then the final four in 2031. That is a lot. That's a mouthful just to say that. So we have a lot going for us. And so the bottom line is Atlanta isn't just hosting big events. It's become the city that world that's the choice for people are making to come to Atlanta.

So we wanted to share that. The last slide, I want to talk about some of the development here in the city. Some of this you already know, but just to highlight that we have the stitch, which is connecting Downtown Atlanta. We have Centennial Yards, one of the largest urban development projects in the country. We have South Downtown, which is long underinvested, seeing serious activities in the downtown area.

We have two piece tree, which is a conversion of a major office tower in residential units. We also have the Atlanta BeltLine that is very popular, as far as what we're seeing, connecting 45 neighborhoods across the city. We also have the Civic Center, which is a redevelopment of a site and is a major opportunity to add housing and also activities downtown. These projects don't just stand alone. They reinforce each other, and together, they have an exciting revival for Atlanta downtown.

The bottom line is the private sector is voting with its capital. These are projects that are proof that long term bet on Atlanta remains strong. So I just wanted to share the great things about Atlanta. So now I'll turn it over to, COO Burt's to talk about the operating development.

Good morning. It's hard to come behind that deputy CFO Carr. And I tell you, felt like it was just two weeks ago. We were over in the old council chambers, having the same meeting, and here we are again today. But good morning again.

Lashandra Burke, chief operating officer. Wanna talk a little bit about our operating budget development. I will tell you that we began with the foundation of our work, the operating budget development process. This process ensures that our resources are aligned with city priorities and that we remain fiscally responsible while advancing key initiatives. Our budget strategy continues to emphasize transparency, equity, and long term sustainability.

And now just to give a few highlights, as we look at f y twenty six, several major highlights shape our financial and operational landscape. And as we go through this entire budget process, you will hear more about some FY twenty six highlights from each of the departments that come before you. But we are focusing on strengthening core services, maintaining efficiency, and preparing for future growth. These highlights set the stage for FY twenty seven planning work that follows. And now we'll go to the administration's priorities.

None of this is new to any members of the council. As we look at our four strategic pillars and as the departments present, you will see how their initiatives and their budget will fall within these same four strategic pillars. One being one safe city, which will reflect our commitment to public safety, community trust, and ensuring residents and visitors feel secure and safe in Atlanta. Number two is a city of opportunity for all. And we're focused on equitable access to economic mobility, education, and services across all of our communities.

Number three, a city built for the future. We're looking at infrastructure, including transportation and enhancing sustainability throughout the city. And number four, effective and ethical government. We remain committed to accountability, good stewardship of resources, and transparent decision making. So next, I wanna talk about our f y twenty seven budget development initiative.

As we look ahead to f y twenty seven, the budget development initiatives are designed to reinforce our core mission while expanding opportunity. You'll see public safety, where we're recruiting and retaining police officers and firefighters, will remain a priority for us along with growing targeted investments in equipment. Year of the youth. You've heard our mayor say that every year will be the year of the youth after having a successful year of the year year of the youth in year one. We're continuing to engage youth with programming and positive activities that support education, safety, and development.

Diversion services. We're continuing to invest in programs that offer alternatives and opportunities, helping residents and visitors access support services. And then, of course, our infrastructure, maintaining and improving our buildings, our roads, our city assets. These are things that are essential to a functioning and growing Atlanta. The next slide will give you our FY '27 expense breakdown just by function.

And, again, as we go through our budget hearings by department, you will hear more. Looking at public safety, which is the very top blue line, we see strong sustained investment. FY '27 proposes 498,000,000, supporting continued staffing and operational needs. The decrease in public safety is mainly due to overtime efficiency policies that were recently put in place during last fiscal year, and that we will maintain during this fiscal year. The administration will be your red line.

The administration remains stable with modest adjustments proposed at $316,700,000 for f y twenty seven. These departments include human resources, finance, procurement, executive offices, law, and AIM. Again, most of your business and administrative functions. For non departmental, that is the green line, the non the non departmental expenses will rise slightly to a $137,300,000 reflecting our citywide obligations and some shared costs that you will hear more about throughout the coming weeks. Independent groups is the royal blue line down at the bottom.

Our independent groups show consistent funding growth with a proposed $42,400,000 allocation. These include independent agencies such as our courts, our solicitor's office, our ethics office, our internal auditing offices, our OIG, and our ACRB. So that's the things that you would see in independent groups as it relates to their budgets. Overall, the expense distribution aligns with our strategic priorities, public safety, operational sustainability, and maintaining essential government functions. But before I turn it over to our next speaker, I want to just pause to give a big thank you to our city of Atlanta employees.

We closed f y twenty six asking everyone to give more and to decrease our budget gap and implemented what some people would define as very painful budget restrictions. But those are things that we had to do. For f y twenty seven, we asked each department to come to the table with a very strategic 5% cut. Our employees have been committed through tight budgets, and I want to just say thank thank say thank you. Many have not forgotten our commitment, though, from the last four years.

Let's not forget, in 2023 and 2024, all employees received a 3.5% COLA. The COLA for Atlanta Police Department in 2023 was 9%. In FY '23, fire pay adjustments range from 7% to 15% plus a 1.5 COLA. We reinstituted the promotional process for fire. We did police retention bonuses, police take home vehicles.

We did health benefits that remained flat over a two year period. The $4 and $12 the $4.12 premium pay was extended and became a part of people's salary. The class and compensation study was fully implemented. We reinstituted pensions. Again, I wanna say thank you to our employees, and it is my hope that the work that we have done over the last four years to show our support for them is appreciated, and we want to move forward. So with that, I will turn it over to our revenue division with our chief revenue officer.

Thank you. Let me go ahead and advance the slide. Okay. Thank you, council members. On this slide, basically, this is simply showing you the agencies, the institutions, and businesses that the office of revenue consults with to project the general fund revenue for both the annual budget and the five year forecasting plan.

We'll turn to the next slide. On this slide, it illustrates our four core categories revenue categories that contributes to the revenue assumptions incorporated in the FY twenty seven budget. Starting with the pie chart in the blue, the dark blue, which is our largest revenue contributor for FY '27 at 40%, is property tax. This area is demonstrating significant growth over the past demonstrated significant growth over the past four fiscal years. Despite despite a slight reduction in receivables and recent legislative changes at the state level, this revenue stream continues to be robust due to our millage rate.

Our next core contributor to the f y twenty seven budget at 16% is public utilities, alcoholic beverage, and other taxes. We are anticipating a significant increase in the revenues in the categories of the line items of interest of insurance premiums, utility franchise fees, and alcohol excise tax attribute to the major upcoming sporting events. The next two areas, which are both coming in at 15%, are local option sales tax and licensing permits. The local option sales tax will likely continue to align with current trends next fiscal year, mainly due to inflation driven by the cost of supplies, goods, and services. For license and permits category, the revenue is projected to show significant increase primarily due to improved collection practices, the second implementation phase of administrative fees and tax rate adjustments and just ongoing business expansions that we're seeing across the city.

Collectively, these four core revenue categories represents 86% of the total proposed f y twenty seven budget. Next slide. This slide, the taxable property values, covers the four key components associated with taxable property values, Starting with the taxable assessed value area, it illustrates, which is in the top left section of the slide, it illustrates the data from the past five fiscal years showing growth in taxable assessed values, which is assessed at 40% of market rate for taxing purposes. During this period, the property value increased from 37,400,000,000 in 2022 to $48,800,000,000 projected for 2026. As you can see, there are a breakdown of the taxable assessed values.

This is broken down by property types. In 2022, the $37,400,000,000 of that residential accounted for $19,600,000,000 commercial accounted for $15,500,000,000 and others accounted for 2,300,000,000. In '23, the four the 40,200,000,000 comprised of 21,400,000,000 in residential, 16,400,000,000 in commercial, and 2,400,000,000 in others. In '24, the 44,800,000,000 residential was at 24,400,000,000, commercial at 18,000,000,000, others at 2,400,000,000. In '25, the 47,800,000,000 comprised of 26,000,000,000 for residential, 19,000,000,000 for commercial, and 2,700,000,000 for others.

And then in 2026, the 48,800,000,000 that we are projecting it accounts for 26,900,000,000 in residential, 19,100,000,000 in commercial, and 2,800,000,000 in others. And just for the knowledge of the new council members, the category others includes historical properties, mobile homes, mobile vehicles, and public utility property taxes. Moving to the second component, which is labeled actual tax collected. This shows the increase in taxes collected from fiscal year twenty twenty two through March 2026, which comprise which coincides with the increase in property values throughout those five years. These figures reflect all category reflect all accounts associated with property tax.

Those accounts are current year and prior year taxes from both Fulton and DeKalb County, real estate transfer taxes, intangible recording taxes, and interest on property tax payments. Moving over to the right corner, where is tax table by land use, This component features a pie chart which shows that the residential property accounts for 51.8% of our tax base, while commercial properties contribute 39.2%, totaling together 94.3% of our land use. Others comprise of 3.5%, and industrial represents 2.2% of the total land use. Once again, for the council, the new council members, the category of industrial is designed for owners that support manufacturing, distribution centers, research and development, as well as our steel and timber mill. The last section on this slide, which is labeled millage rate, illustrates the city's rate trend over the past five fiscal years.

In 2022, you will see that the rate was set at 7.85 mills for operating levy, 1.88 mills for the bond levy, and 0.5 50 mills for the park levy. The following year in 2023, the operating levy rose to 0.67 mills. This was to help fund general solid waste services while both the bond levy and the park levy stayed the same. In '24, you will see that the park levy increased by 0.5 mills to aid park maintenance and improvements with no change to the other levies, and all levies remain stable in 2025. However, you will see that in 2026, during the budget development process, the council chose to transfer 1 mil of bond debt savings to the operating millage rate.

This adjustment resulted in 9.52 mils for operating levy, and bond levy dropped to 0.85 mills, and the part levy remained, held at one mill. Together, this lowered the total millage rate, which for the last two years prior was at 11.4 meals to 11.37 meals. Next slide. In this slide titled the next, titled the net tax digest and millage rate, it, presents the assessed property value growth from 2016 to 2026 for Fulton and DeKalb County. As you can see, the property value in collection increased significantly and is projected at 373,400,000 in 2026.

This trend has helped the city manage continuous economic challenges that it that it faced. Next slide. Now this slide is the revenue comparison. I will, break down the comparisons across the 11 revenue categories. And as you can see, it is already, the title on the top is f y '25 actuals, f y twenty six adopted budget, f y twenty six year end projection, f y twenty seven proposed budget, and the difference between proposed f y twenty seven versus the adopted f y twenty six figures.

Starting with, the line item that is titled f y twenty six year end projection column. As you can see, as of March, the city total year end general fund is anticipated to be 991,600,000, representing an increase of 16,300,000 compared to the adopted general fund operating revenue of $975,300,000 In the column labeled FY twenty seven proposed budget, we are recommending an amount of 994,600,000 and this shows an increase of approximately 19,300,000 over the adopted f y twenty six budget. Moving over to the column labeled proposed f y twenty seven versus adopted f y twenty six, you will see that we have five of our revenue categories that we're anticipating to rise, while three are projected to decline slightly. Starting with the property tax category, we are forecasting an increase of 5,390,000. This is attributed to the typical property grow property value growth and our current millage rate.

For the public utilities, alcoholic beverage, and other taxes category, it reflects an increase of 8.39 meals, and this is attributed to the elevated revenues from the line items of insurance premium, utility franchise taxes, and alcohol excess taxes associated with the upcoming events. The local option sales tax category is expected to be in line with the existing trend, reflecting steady economic conditions and consistent consumer spending that we are seeing. For license and permits category, we are expecting an increase of 13.04 and is based on the second implementation phase of the administrative fees and tax table rates adjustments associated with the occupational tax. In the category of other revenues for f y twenty seven, the budget is projected to decline by 7,810,000. This is due to the elimination of several nonrecurring revenue sources that were included in the FY '27 FY '26, excuse me, budget development period, such as the defined contributions as well as other investment earnings that we had in there for nonrecurring.

I would like to highlight to you that for visual purposes, we did separate this revenue category so that you could see the difference in the amounts of reoccurring revenues compared to the nonrevenue categories nonrevenue revenues nonrecurring revenues. Sorry. In f y twenty five, you will see in the other revenues that the total was 61,900,000 with 26,100,000 coming from reoccurring revenues and 35,800,000 attributed from non reoccurring revenues. Currently, for the FY '26 end projections, we anticipate $14,900,000 in nonreoccurring revenues and $7,800,000 in reoccurring revenues, which gives you a total of $22,800,000 in this revenue category. And for the knowledge of the new council members, reoccurring revenues in this category typically are investment earnings, asset sales, as well as miscellaneous sources.

In the next category of charge for charge for current services, we anticipate to experience a modest reduction of 200,000. This is primarily attributed to lower revenues that we are seeing in the line item of entertainment filming application fees. For fines, fortresses, and penalties category, there will be a slight increase of 300,000 in f y twenty seven, and this is due to revenue growth that we are seeing in the line item of pretrial intervention diversion program and the school bus safety cameras. In the category of billing rental and concessions, we are forecasting a reduction of 4,190,000, and this is primarily due to the adjustments that we made from the loss of billing rentals that the city owned as well as decrease in parking leasing income that we are seeing. And then for the indirect cost recovery category, we are expecting an increase in the budget for f y twenty seven of 4,450,000 to align with the anticipated revenues related to used departments in the upcoming annual indirect cost plan.

For the hotel motel tax category, we are projecting this to remain consistent with prior year's results, reflecting, continuous stability in the related economic and travel, sectors activity. And the final revenue category is the pilots and franchise fees. We are estimating this to remain in line with prior year's trends indicating stable economic conditions and steady watershed revenue activities. Now moving to the next slide. On this slide, this is just simply highlighting the trends that you see in both the actuals and the onetime nonreoccurring revenues.

And over the period from FY twenty one to FY twenty six, this total revenue increased by 41%. This is showing that we are demonstrating a proactive approach and dedicated dedication to our significant sustainability as we move Atlanta forward. On the next slide. This slide right here is just simply giving you a visual analysis of our current millage rate with no proposed change for FY '27. I will now turn this presentation over to the budget chief, Sean Gabel, to give an in-depth overview of the expenses.

Good morning, council. Good morning. Sean Gabriel, budget chief. Now I'll walk you through the expenditure side of our operating budget. Next slide.

So this first slide before you provides an overview of the city's proposed FY twenty seven operating budget totaling 3,200,000,000. This is the largest operating budget in the city's history. The pie chart illustrates how the budget is allocated across major funds, which are detailed on page 67 in your proposed budget books. For the general fund, the city's primary operating fund is proposed at 994,600,000 representing 31.5% of the total operating budget. Now within the general fund, I do wanna point out that 50% supports public safety operations, 36% for all other operating departments and independent agencies, and 14% is allocated to non departmental.

No problem at all. So when we look at the general fund specifically, 50% supports public safety operations, 36% for all other operating departments and independent agencies, and 14% is allocated to non departmental. The enterprise funds, which are primarily supported through user charges and fees, comprise the largest share of the operating budget. The water and wastewater fund proposed at 740,200,000 and the Aviation Fund at 970,900,000. Combined, these two funds, Ward and Aviation account for approximately 54% of the city's total operating budget.

The remaining seven funds in the top right quadrant, we label those sort of like in other funds category, they total 450,000,000 or roughly about 14.3% of the overall operating budget. Next slide, please. So this slide presents the year over year comparison of expenditures by major category, highlighting the FY twenty six adopted budget, the FY twenty six year end projection that was shared during the second quarter financial status presentation with the finance executive committee, as well as the FY twenty seven proposed budget of 994,600,000. Overall, the FY twenty seven proposed budget reflects an increase of 19,300,000 or 2% over the FY twenty six adopted budget. I do wanna take a minute to just briefly touch upon a few categories that have significant variances.

Beginning with the first category, personnel services and employee benefits, the $14,000,000 increase you see is driven by higher pension contributions as well as rising health care costs while salaries remain stable through strategic adjustments that align staffing levels with operational needs. The purchase contract services reflects a modest increase of 2,900,000 for costs related to ongoing public safety contractual obligations. The $1,000,000 increase you see in interfund and interdepartmental charges reflect fuel and maintenance costs associated with the city's fleet operations. The 2,600,000 increase in other costs reflect the midyear budget amendment that adjusted the FY twenty six funded budget for the annual council carry forward true up. Debt service and other financing uses when combined decreases by 7,000,000 from the prior fiscal year as we continue to leverage funding sources across the organization.

And finally, conversion summary that reflects our annual budgeted amount for restricted reserves, which amount to roughly 1% of our anticipated general fund revenues. Next slide, please. So on this slide, expenditures are shown just as a percentage of the total budget. And the key takeaway here is that we are funding at a similar level to last year with adjustments for reserves and debt service. But I will say that personnel costs continue to represent the largest share of the general fund budget comprising nearly two thirds of total expenditures.

Next slide, please. So on this slide, we present the f y twenty seven proposed I think we passed one. We have the if we go back, just wanted to yeah. I wanna talk about just at the department level. So this slide presents the f y twenty seven proposed budget at the departmental level.

It reflects the rebaselining of general fund operations while ensuring essential services such as public safety, infrastructure, and critical community programs remain fully prioritized. Ongoing efficiency measures will continue to play a vital role at the departmental level in FY twenty seven. This includes a 50% hold on departmental budgets at the start of the fiscal year, budgetary control at the office as well as the major account group level, and vacancy review board oversight to ensure staffing aligns with core operational needs and prioritizes frontline services. I do wanna point out when you take a look at this table that for city council and non departmental, FY '26 reflects the funded budget rather than the adopted budget. And we did this to account for the midyear carry for a budget amendment, so this reflects a more accurate year over year comparison of those two departments.

Next slide, please. So the final expenditure slide I just wanted to share with you focuses on the general fund's non departmental budget. As the name implies, the nondepartmental budget supports expenditures that are generally not specific to any one single city department. The FY twenty seven proposed nondepartmental budget totals 137,300,000 representing an increase of 2,400,000 or 1.8% over the FY twenty six adopted budget. This increase primarily reflects continued investments in affordable housing and community programs that support and provide opportunities for residents across our city.

The pie chart highlights key allocations within non departmental, including debt service, other post employment benefits, strategic partnerships with Fulton and DeKalb Counties, Invest Atlanta, and budgeted reserves. The table to the right provides additional detail regarding specific activities and initiatives budgeted and non departmental. Next slide, please. Next, we just wanna take a minute to just give you a snapshot and take a

look at our five year

look ahead. This is looking at our five year forecast for both revenues and expenses. This next slide provides a high level summary of the general fund forecast and outlines the projected revenues and expenditures over the next five fiscal years. The forecast incorporates our key assumptions and related, to economic growth and cost escalations for both revenue as well

as

expenditures. Now state law requires the city to adopt the balanced budget each year, and this forecast emphasizes the need to remain fiscally disciplined given the net impact position for most of the forecast period. At this time, I'll turn the presentation over to chief Davis to discuss the revenue outlook. Thank you. Well, go ahead

and direct your attention to f y twenty seven. As you will see, we did propose that at September. And as you can see all the way up to f y thirty one, we are proposing roughly up to 1,100,000,000 over the next five years. Our annual growth rate are expected between 22.7%, averaging roughly at 2.3% overall. Our highest growth rate of 2.7% is forecast for FY '28, and this is due to key adjustments across several revenue categories that we are seeing.

Since I did talk about f y twenty seven doing the fiscal condition portion, I will start with the FY twenty eight, and this will just be highlight high level review of everything. The projected revenue increase of of revenue, the projected percentage increase, I'm sorry, of revenue in f y twenty eight, as I stated before, is 2.7%. This increase is primarily driven by steady growth in property value, our occupational tax, and anticipated revenue changes that we're seeing in various charge for services. Looking beyond f y twenty eight, our annual growth rate are predicted to be to fall between 2.32.4%. We expect noticeable increases in the revenue categories of property tax, public utilities, alcoholic beverage, and other taxes, local option sales tax, and finally, license and permits.

Overall, the five year revenue plan demonstrates a positive outlook of the city, of Atlanta's financial future with steady growth in each revenue category. As always, we have taken consideration the economic levels, and we will continue to look at the economic levels as well as political climate in the upcoming year. I'll turn it over to Sean.

Thank you, chief Davis. Just real briefly, just wanna walk through some of the, major assumptions driving expenditures. So for personnel services and employee benefits, our forecast assumes a point five annual increase in regular salaries and a 2% for sworn salaries. Now should APD maintain its current hiring cadence and recruitment efforts, We anticipate reaching 2,000 offices by fiscal year twenty thirty. The forecast also assumes a 3% increase in pension plans and a 6% for group health care compounded annually.

Purchase contract services include a 3% annual escalation to reflect the rising cost of key contractual obligations. For supplies, the forecast assumes annual utility increases of 3% for electricity and 1% for water consumption. It also anticipates additional cost for tactical gear, uniforms, and equipment to support frontline recruitment efforts. Capital outlays are expected to remain relatively stable with minimum purchases for minor equipment while interfund and interdepartmental charges reflect fuel and repair and maintenance costs at 4.5% for fleet operations. Other costs assumes a 4% annual increase in other post employment benefits with additional growth in the outer years tied to election cycles.

Projections

are based on the city's existing debt service schedule and current repayment structure. For conversion summary, the forecast assumes a budgeted reserve of 1.5% for fiscal year twenty eight through thirty, and increasing to 2% beginning in fiscal year twenty thirty one. And our final category for other financing uses, that includes continued investments as we have mentioned earlier in affordable housing and public safety. While GMA debt service payments will phase out as that program sunsets after fiscal year twenty twenty eight. So at this time, I'll turn the presentation over to our controller, Tiffany Jones Golden.

Thank you. Good morning, council members. Tiffany Jones Golden, controller. So we've heard a lot this morning about the general fund. In the next couple of slides, we are going to highlight some of the other key funding sources that support the city's day to day operations and long term investments.

And the first is impact fees. Now impact fees are charges that are collected from new development projects to help pay for the cost of providing public services to that new development and impact fees. They are essential as the city grows because they help to make sure we have the right infrastructure in the right places throughout the city without overburdening our general fund. As of March 2026, the city's impact fee fund balance is 83,000,000. And this slide shows the fund balance, and it is allocated by the various service areas.

And then we further broken down the fund balance in each service area by unrestricted, which is shown in the blue bar, and then restricted, which is shown in red. And unrestricted, which is the blue bar in each of those service areas, this is funds that are available for future eligible projects. And then restricted, is funds that have already been allocated out to various projects. So you will notice that the largest balance is in the transportation citywide category with 30,900,000 restricted and 2,100,000 unrestricted. And this large amount is because prior to the most recent impact fee study and updated ordinance, the city only had one transportation service area, which was citywide.

But that updated ordinance, it established three new service areas, which is transportation north, south, and west, which aligns more closely with the parks service areas, and then it better reflects where growth is happening throughout the city. Next slide, please. Okay. So another key funding source that helps support specific programs is the city's trust fund. And if you flip to the next slide.

So this slide gives an overview of where things stand in the trust fund as of March 2026. So currently, we have 121 trusts, and they total $64,500,000 And these trusts are used for programs or projects that have a dedicated revenue source like a donation assessment or a fee, and they allow us to fund longer term initiatives without putting extra pressure on the general fund. And while the city does maintain, the 121, it's important to note that the top 10 trust on the slide make up 45,500,000 or 70% of the total balance. And these trusts, they tend to support larger or legacy efforts like the tree protection trust and the economic development trust. And then they also, focus on other specialized community programs.

The other thing I wanted to point out on this slide is that there are some trust funds like the affordable housing trust fund that are actively supporting critical work all year long, but they don't show up in the top 10 because at the point that the slide was produced, their balance was spent down, so they don't have a top 10 balance at the moment. Next slide, please. Okay. So this slide shows how the audited general fund fund balance has changed from fiscal year twenty ten through 2025. And over the past ten years, we have seen a $54,000,000 increase, which reflects strong financial management and a focus on building healthy reserves.

Now on the slide, the blue bar represents the unrestricted fund balance, and that's the portion that we're able to use more flexibly. And then the red represents the restricted fund balance, which is set aside for specific purposes. So between f y twenty four and f y twenty five, there was a $19,700,000 decrease due to strategic initiatives for public safety, such as take home vehicles and changes in the pension plan. But it's important to note that our unrestricted fund balance is still at 15% of the subsequent year's budget day expenditures, which is in line with the city's fund balance policy, and it shows the city's financial position remains stable and well managed. So at this point, I will turn it over to chief Knight to discuss debt and investments.

Thank you, Tiffany. Good morning, chairman Winston, madam president, members of the council. I'm Courtney Knight. I'm chief of treasury debt and investments. Okay.

Given what we know about all of the uncertainty in the financial markets right now, it is important that we focus our investment portfolio on safe and liquid securities. So, therefore, in this pie chart, you see that the largest, investment portion that we have is over 40%, which is in the Georgia fund one managed by the state treasurer in very safe and liquid investments. We also have large portions of our 2,000,000,000 portfolio in US treasury securities and US agency securities. The the last portion, 14.5%, is in double a rated or better state municipal bonds. We've also seen a decline in the yield of our portfolio over the last several years.

Currently, we're earning just over 3.9%. That's down from 4.1% in the same quarter last year. Next slide, please. Turning to our debt portfolio. The city has approximately $8,200,000,000 of debt.

Over 57% of that is for the Department of Aviation. The next largest portion, 30%, is for the Department of Watershed Management. And then we have much smaller debt portfolio for general obligation and general fund and other securities. In terms of the, each of the debt portfolios, you will note under the general obligation category a decline of over $178,000,000 of GO bonds. That is a result of the, defeasance strategy that you all authorized a year ago wherein we took cash that was sitting in the invested sinking fund, and we paid down or paid off or defeased outstanding general obligation bonds.

The other notable changes in our debt portfolio is, of course, under the Department of Aviation, an increase of over $1,000,000,000 of debt. That is in tune with their annual capital program, their ongoing capital program, which last year was about a billion dollars, and we're also looking at perhaps a similar amount this year. Under the Department of Watershed Management, the the reduction of over $110,000,000 of debt was the cash optimization strategy that we implemented in 2024, which was again using cash to pay down debt. At the bottom of the page, you will note that currently, we have not achieved any interest rate savings. However, we are going to be pricing a, 800 to $1,000,000,000 transaction next week in New York for the Department of Watershed Watershed Management.

We anticipate that that transaction may save over $80,000,000. And lastly, turning to our credit ratings, which we are extremely proud of, I note that during the last several months, we have achieved an increase in the rating for our water and sewer debt, by Standard and Poor's. That is significant as we go to New York next week to price those bonds with a stronger rating that will help us achieve lower interest cost on that bond yield next year. We've also received an upgrade for the airport's general general airport revenue bonds, from Fitch. That will be impactful when we come to market in August with the, airport's next bond issue.

And, we also received new ratings from Crowell on the water and sewer debt of double a. That is the highest rating of any water and sewer system in The United States by Kroll. And that is the summary of my, activities in the debt and investment portfolios.

Thank you, counsel. And this, concludes the formal presentation, and we're happy to take any questions that the, counsel might have.

Thank you, CFO and madam COO for presentation to your team, for this for the overview. Council members are already lining up to get in the queue. And so we're gonna start with questions. Colleagues, I'll just remind you, you know, being as succinct as possible with your questions as a lot of you are here. So first, we wanna kick it off with council member Dozier.

Thank you, mister chair. Thank you, CFO Bala, CEO Birx, and the rest of the team for being here. It's always good to see y'all in this environment. I'm glad we're back in our main chambers and that across the way, and it's a different environment last year, so I'm glad we're back over here. Just thinking about our city revenue and revenue opportunities strategically, something that comes to mind is the catalytic development slide that y'all shared earlier.

I was very appreciative that, you know, South Downtown Centennial Yards, two Peachtree, the stitch, even a big chunk of the belt line. These are all District 4 projects, and I've joking jokingly said it every ribbon cutting and every groundbreaking. Thank you to this administration for making me the envy of my colleagues with all the shovels we've had in the dirt. But what also what I recognize too, you know, 50 acres for Centennial Yards, 10 blocks in South Downtown. Civic Center was mentioned.

I forgot how many acres are part of that project, but each are large sites that are can can pose a lot of risk because they're larger investors or investment groups that are tied to one in entity. I think about with South Downtown just a few years ago before Atlanta Ventures acquired those properties. Newport fell through because of all the stuff happening in Ukraine and elsewhere, and we were at risk of having theoretically or figuratively a hole in the dirt because those projects weren't gonna move forward. Similar situation that streets of Buckhead over a decade ago where that investment group fell through. And just in the last couple of days, the pack is restaurant group has at least three restaurants in the city of Atlanta, Ronnie Scott, Hero Doughnuts, and, Seto's, which, are closed now because that one parent company fell through.

And so strategically, are we looking at ways in which we can spread out that risk, not necessarily having partnerships or working with investment line to do these larger, bigger real estate deals, but working with small developers to make sure that risk is spread out. One thing I think about is just from a revenue stream standpoint is that we've seen with licenses or permits, all those fees versus having one master developer. Those smaller developers will individually have their own sort of permitting processes. It makes it easier for smaller developers to get the capital to to get build those projects. But then at the same time, like I said, there's less risk that's being concentrated in one developer.

So just there's all to say, has there been strategic alignment with Invest Atlanta to think about how we are positioning the projects that we are celebrating, Mall West End and Miami District, for instance, by supporting smaller scale, more human scale development sites.

Yeah. Absolutely. I think there's a strong coordination with our economic development arm, Invest Atlanta, who leads a lot of the conversations and strategy around these large scale projects. I think one thing to note is quite upfront is that these parts of town have been neglected for decades, and, there needs to be a concerted effort to unlock that value. Let's talk about Centennial Yards for a moment.

That is a site that was, undeveloped for over fifty years. It was generating zero value to the city of Atlanta. It needed some significant thought processes around how to bring that back and unlock that value. And so that large coordination effort is, I think, what the city of Atlanta does better than any other cities and making sure that we have thoughtful approach to that, to that growth. If you had just left it to the will of the market, it might be undeveloped for another twenty to thirty years.

So I really applaud Invest Atlanta, applaud prior administration, and applaud this administration for looking at creative ways to unlock this value. It is a real thing now. There's cranes there. There's activity there. There's businesses that are coming in town that have not been here for over fifty years. We should applaud that. Do also, you know, hear your points and concern about making sure that that growth is equitable and that growth is one that everybody feels a part of. I think this is the another another kind of bright point for the city of Atlanta, and that there was a development agreement with The Gulfs. There was a community engagement. There were conversations that looked at how that growth can be thoughtful.

We did that also in the Summerhill area as well. We're coordinating with Georgia State and the growth that happened there. So I hear you loud and clear. I think it's the city's intent to always make sure that growth happens and that growth is equitable. But, you know, sometimes in a free market environment, things move a little bit faster, and we just have to be very thoughtful about the impact to residents, the impact of small business owners.

I know you've done a lot of work personally about legacy business owners and small businesses in Atlanta, and that makes it part of an environment and part of a fabric too. I think the BeltLine does a great job of including small businesses and entrepreneurial and early stage businesses to be part of that that growth as well too. So loud hear you loud and clear. I think in West Atlanta does an excellent job doing that. Are there rules for improvement?

There's always rules for improvement. I think the COO's office probably sees other areas that she would see the impact that it has to our service delivery as well too because that growth doesn't just come without impacts to our service and our operations and cleaning it up and maintaining it and making sure that we have police resources and fire resources and all the other operational needs that impact us from massive growth.

And and I'll just say too, my my view is that, like, yes, these are all good things. It's my it's that it's a yes and versus alternative vision for Atlanta. So, yes, we need big products, but also I wanna make sure that we're looking at smaller projects that like, if me and customer Martin and customer Westmoreland, they all pulled, you know, $50,000 that none of us have, but it makes it easier for us to do something at a small scale versus having to wait for a $10,000,000 investor to come in to do the project that we know our communities needs. And that's what what I'm getting at there. And to put a a point on that as well, mean, I I know Forge Atlanta, which is right down the street from the South Downtown development.

City is not involved in that project, but Fulton County Development Authority gave them a $10,000,000 tax break, and then now that project is doesn't appear to be moving forward. And so it's just these large sites that, you know, it's it's just a lot of concentrated risk. And I think about what you shared before about the international geopolitical implications for development here in the city, fuel costs, infrastructure costs, immigration, crackdowns of increasing labor costs. These are real things that make it harder for these even these big products to move forward. We can spread that risk, make it easier for smaller developers to get in the market.

I think it is better for the health of the city in the long term. Noted. Agreed. Another question that I had just strategically. I know there's been a lot of conversation about the under appraisal of commercial properties. I think Georgia Tech had a study that said we were under appraising by about thirty, forty percent. We myself and councilor Ruan hosted a work session three years ago, four years ago, where we had the Fulton County assessor's office come down to City Hall to talk about their processes and how they appraise properties. My understanding is that they had some staff turnover with the new Fulton County assessor. They shared some of their models and how they do the assessment. I've I pitched that, hey.

You know, it feels like these private sector models that Zillow and others are using seems to more accurately capture the real market value of these commercial properties and maybe what we're doing on the public side. I imagine there's been more ongoing conversations since that work session between administration of Fulton County. Could y'all share some insight in terms of what y'all discuss and what we could potentially see as far

as Absolutely. There's been a lot of coordination with the assessor's office who's been very open to thinking about this in a collaborative way and a collaborative approach. They Fulton County and assessor's office has dedicated more resources to commercial valuation assessments, so that work is already underway. We're coordinating internally CFO's office along with the chief strategy officer. His office saying she will be working with Georgia Tech as well to help give us some additional points of context to improve the process and reassess that that valuation framework just to get another thoughtful approach on it and that engagement is already underway.

We are optimistic. We are hopeful that this will eventually get resolved soon. And it again, it impacts for us, you know, the undervaluation of commercial properties, ends up impacting single family residential owners because it burn it shifts the burden over to them. So if that growth was already there, we would not know, we might have to we it wouldn't just be left on a concentrated group to pick up the burden.

Thank you. And then I did have a question about I've I've been following the large discussion that's happening in Roswell about the new publicly funded parking structure parking that they're building there. They built through bond financing, and then there was some push back because they're also charging residents to park at the same residents are filling, they were double paying, so forth and so on. But I know other cities, Athens, Savannah, have a more robust public parking program where the city is investing in structured parking decks as a way to both provide more parking capacity in high demand areas, but also, reduce some of the, reliance that these private developers are having to, you know, spend their money to build structured parking, which then allows for more leasable space, more units to be built, more commercial space that can be leased because the public side is absorbing that cost and absorbing those operations. I know Two Peachtree was in this presentation, but Five Peachtree is across the street where we've acquired a parking there, we're doing some senior housing there.

I know with twenty Central Flats across the street, the city has a stake in the parking availability that's tied to, that particular building. Is is parking revenue or or structured parking a potential revenue vehicle for the city recognizing, there's you know, I know there's a larger conversation with Dean about available availability of parking for city employees, but just wondering if there's an opportunity to do what some of the other municipality costs they have been doing and and having more controls in play or more controlling the parking footprint that they have in their cities.

Well, in terms of our our parking approach, I know one thing we have to be careful for as a city is we are generally in provide services. So the fees that we charge is to recover the services to provide those the fees that we charge to is a service recovery fee. So we're doing our parking on street parking analysis is really to recover the services. It's not to generate additional sources into the general government. So we have to kinda be a little bit careful about that.

So we're going through that assessment. In terms of structured parking, I haven't had I haven't personally had that discussion, but it doesn't mean that it's having. And one of the things that we kinda think about, like our core competency as a city is to deliver services, not necessarily to find new areas of of operations to get into. So but I'd be happy to understand what the other cities are doing and how it has been complimented to to their, framework. I know that parking is a big issue for a lot of residents, But it's something that we definitely take a we can look into and investigate further.

Thank you. And I would love to have that. I know this has been an ongoing conversation, with some of the work we've done to remove parking minimums on the Belt and to lower the parking maximums that we have in downtown. So I think the city should be more involved in those conversations in a more Yeah. Strategic way, and I'd have some thoughts. So I'll be happy to share those with you.

And I will point the areas where we have done that is when it's directly impacting city operations. So the parking deck across the street is one that the city built, the city finance, the the employees pay to park there. And it I think that's so so we paid off now. Right? I think I think it's

not quite almost quite paid off. It's not quite.

It's almost there.

Thank you. This is my last question with the rising fuel costs with the war in Iran. It's tracer moves and and and inflation. I haven't talked about inflation in a while. Are we just strategically I'm from Georgia. I say things differently. Strategically, are we looking at making changes to our vehicle fleet to move more towards electric vehicles to reduce some of those operational costs tied to rising fuel expenses?

Yeah. No. I'll let CEO take that one.

Yes. I will say where we can, we are. You will see some departments transitioning to electric vehicles as much as possible. You've seen probably well, you wouldn't have been across the street at the parking deck where we have, we are actually including more chargers in our parking decks as well and purchasing more electric vehicles. So we are looking at that. That has been a part of our plan for some time, and it's kind of run through our sustainability office as they work with departments on ongoing basis. If there are vehicles that can be electric or hybrid, we are transitioning to those.

And then just as a final comment, one thing if if the department can share this with counsel. I know we have our budget books. We have our departmental the the amount of, that, you know, I wanna look at our expense for each department for what's been budgeted. We have our total number of funded and unfunded employees. I would love to see a cost per employee breakdown for each department.

I have a theory that I'm trying to work through and just will love to see that data on, if we know that police has 2,000 employees, and I'm making up a number, but their budget is $50,000,000, just that 2,000 divided up to 50,000,000 to get a sense of what departments are are we spending more on a per employee basis. I'm just working through something that I wanted to just be able to visualize that differently. Mister Chair, sorry for taking up so much time. Are you open?

Alright. Thank you, vice chair Wong.

Thank you, mister chair, and thank you to the, team for the presentation. I'm gonna try and do this rapid fire because I I know that all of our new council members are in the queue, so I wanna hear their questions. Starting with kind of the overall macro things. I feel like the last four years, we we keep talking about this swirling threat of recession pullback, and it hasn't materialized. Thank goodness.

I just wonder now, and seeing that sales tax and property tax comprise over 55% of our our revenues, have we found anything that we can that best correlates to as a predictor for those? I I just I mean, I know that you've thrown on a lot of different data points of federal, state, and local, but what are you I mean, I guess, what are y'all using? Because I don't even know what to look at anymore.

Yeah. So, let turn it over to Lawrence who highlighted a lot of the partners that we partner with when we are using our assumptions. We rely heavily on PFM's analytical work to give us some of the the macro considerations as well. But you are absolutely a 100% right. It's been very hard to kinda really predict where things are happening in terms of pure recession risk.

Right? If you look at different indicators, some is I think Terry had it at 40%, which was higher than most other people are, projecting recession right now. It is an art as much as it is a science to figure out kind of what the, look like. Okay. Because we we have those those entities, and I think they're listed on page Mhmm. 15 or so.

I'd I I well, I won't belabor this, but it'd be might be fun to use AI to see if we could look back and and if there is maybe one indicator or two that that seems to be more accurate than another. Let me move over to the tax digest. Do we have any indication of what f y 26 to '27 might look like from the county, particularly with, I think, it's state house bill five eighty one that they I don't know if the governor signed it here, but but do we have any idea of what the hopeful growth is in the tax digest?

Yeah. Lawrence, can answer. Go ahead.

This is yeah. Council

council member one. Great question. Currently, right now, we have, information from the cab, which is our lower bracket in this. Fulton County has not provided us with the current information right now.

Did the cabs actually go up?

Yes, sir.

Okay. So that's at least a good indicator potentially of Fulton's situation. Okay. Revenue by category. The I'm a little surprised that sales tax is flat. Again, being one of the two biggest line items, that that would be one that I would expect with World Cup straddling into the second fiscal year and then the indicators that y'all saw that you presented. I would have expected at least a modest jump in that. What what's the reason for keeping that flat?

Sure. So there's two things happening with sales tax, at the same time. So we've seen there's inflation that helps sales tax, point of sale, but there's also less activity. So it takes a little bit away from that inflation. Okay. It's necessarily happening. But at the same time, each year when we got into the ten year agreement with Fulton County over lost negotiations, Fulton's That's right. Increase in the lost Yep. Yep. Incrementally increases over the ten year period. Yeah. So that eats away at some of the growth as well. Okay.

Thank you. Two final questions. Impact fee, surprised to see the unrestricted in fire. So what are our thoughts on that? And what are the restrictions that's not the wrong word. What are the criteria around expend those type of expenditures? And given kind of the conversations that have been swirling around with fire, are there thoughts of deploying that? I mean, it's a pretty significant balance.

So Yeah. I'm sorry.

I was talking about the, page 47 impact fees, fire, significant balance, unrestricted. Just wanna understand what the uses are for those and what are if we have any plans to expand those.

Yeah. So there are some, plans to coordinate with the fire department about utilizing those fees to for additional enhancements to Is it equipment

and aqua and new stations as well or just equipment?

Can it be used for equipment, or is it just for infrastructure projects?

I'm not sure.

Yeah. We'll have to double check if it if equipment's a usable, line item. But I I I do know that we usually use it to complement new fire station developments. So Yeah. We primarily bond for those. And to the extent that we can utilize impact fees for unexpected costs and overruns, that's when we'll tip into this bucket.

Like like Fire Station 29. I'll just throw that out there.

More so, I was saying, I would say more so renovations. So usually the new builds are out of moving Atlanta forward. And then when there is a gap, we can pull in the impact fees, but most of them are for renovations of stations that will not be rebuilt.

Okay. Alright.

And finally, I I'd wanna spend just a minute on the fund balance because I I do appreciate that it's grown over the last ten years, but I wanna acknowledge that we've actually utilized a lot of it in the last four years. And we're now at the kind of the floor of that 15%. I and maybe there's not a question in this, but I just wanna express a little bit of anxiety because, typically, I would have gone and looking at the fund balance as a rainy day fund. Like, when things, when there is an economic downturn, which we haven't seen over the last four years, but yet we've been really dipping into that. I think you mentioned that we've used a lot of it, last year or the year before with regard to public safety, the take home cars.

Great for one time, but I just I'll I'll want to dive in a little later in terms of if we've been using any of that to cover what will be recurring expenses, like personnel and all that because we're at the floor now of what our guidelines are. And, really, that gives us no more wiggle room going into potential economic challenges. So I just don't know if you have any reflections on that. Again, it's we're in a good position. I just the trend is probably not what our the public would have expected given the boom over the last couple of years.

We feel the same way, council member one. Okay. We we mentioned, and this is no secret, FY '25 was a very challenging year. And so when we ended that year, there was a hit to fund balance, and that hit is coming from normal operations. So it's not a place where we want to be at. We've done a lot in FY '26 to shore up revenues, to rebalance operations, to add some additional efficiency because you're absolutely right. It's not a sustainable source to keep taking, deficit pressures. So we're looking at not just the general fund, but impact fees, trust funds, other areas where the burden can't just be left on a general fund to to bear, and so we hear you loud and clear.

Okay. I look forward to the discussions over the next several weeks. Mister chair, I yield. Thank you. Councilman Mihaelis.

Thank you. Thank you, mister chair. Thank you, CFO Bala and CEO Birx and everyone on the team. Just a few questions and then some requests likely. COO Berks, you stated and it has been known that the department's were asked to present a 5% cut. Was that from their adopted budget or their projected budget of FY '26?

Year end projection.

It was their year end projection. Okay. From their year end projection. So not the adopted, but the year end projection.

Understood. Thank you. On the, talking about fees for a minute, CFO. Can you I don't know. Just just make it past the particular departments depending on which department it is, but given it is a citywide issue that we're trying to resolve, can you give us a rundown of where all of our senior departments are on on their much needed fee studies?

Yes. We have engaged PMF and worked on looking at many of the fee studies, which I believe will start coming before council relatively soon. So I know, we talked about the on street parking, which I believe would be next. There's ones with regards to building rentals that we will bring forth. And some of them, we are balancing also with just making sure that the fee increases are are not impacting residential involvement as well too.

So these are some of finer tools that we're looking into to make sure that our buildings are accessible, are needed, could be there for constituent gatherings. So some of them, quite frankly, the fee recovery might be not a 100%. It might be 8060% just to make sure that that we are aligned there. Planning, will be coming forth with, their updated fee schedule. And I know the Department of Water shared management as well as looking into all their fees, and that should be coming forth.

Last year, at this time, we approved the occupational business license fee increase. So that's already, approved and and in the works. It'll continue to be an ongoing process. And quite frankly, what we've seen is that we don't wanna wait these long periods. We don't wanna wait another ten years to do fee studies. This should be a natural recurring activity of government. And so every year, we'll bring in, you know, one or two fees that need to be modernized and updated.

Thank you for that. Look forward to hearing more. On two impact fees, council member one spoke a little bit about fire. I wanted to ask some about the still remaining $33,000,000 in the citywide transportation fund. Given that fund, I don't believe, has been paid into in about five years now. I think that was on the timeline that DCP was, to do their updated fee study, and that is, as you mentioned, coming up this year. So has there been a push? And I know a lot of it is already restricted, but, are these projects actually moving out the door given this is $33,000,000 of fees that have been sitting around in in a account for five plus years.

Right. So with the Department of Community Planning, the Department of Transportation are working real close to make sure that the projects that have been latent are starting to kind of move across the framework. And I know just in terms of project delivery overall, it's a coordinated effort. Right? Because you're using impact fees, and impact fees might be a component of a larger project, not the whole project itself.

And so, you know, it's just making sure that we have the necessary, infrastructure to deliver the projects timely. And I I believe over the last year, we've done a lot of work to get things done in the Department of Transportation, and things are starting to unthaw and move at a much faster pace. So over the next couple of years, hopefully, we'll start to see this come down. We we want to see, ideally, the restricted funds just to dissipate over time while we add new available impact fees to be used for, upcoming projects.

Understood. Thank you for that. Last two are just request. Request this almost every year, I believe. Can I please get a list of the restricted funds, impact fees, what what those projects are for, the restricted funds, and all of these pots of money?

Mhmm. And then the last request is on this very large $13,200,000 tree removal trust fund. I would like information on how much in the past two years has that trust fund received from city projects.

Okay.

DWM, DOT, DEAM, building new police and fire stations, etcetera.

Okay. Thank you. Will do. Alright. Thank you. Councilmember Norwood.

Good morning. Thank you for your presentation. I want I wanna hand this out to y'all, a copy to each of you. This was passed yesterday at city council, and it's about the admit the executive offices that are not mandated by the charter. So not, sanitation, not parks, not, city planning, but there are a lot of others and I know that we're gonna have several weeks of every department wanting to tell us how they need more and need to be able to do more.

And I just and so I asked my colleagues to, do immediate consideration yesterday, which they did. So this is a thirty day request so that we can have this. Because if we have to make some tough decisions between now and the end of the budget cycle, I wanted everybody, y'all, the different executive offices and all the council to think through because they're 45. They're 45 different offices that are on the mayor's cabinet and are executive offices. So it's a lot, and and they're wonderful things that are great to have, but they may not be shouldn't may not should be, said it wrong, funded at the level they are right now if we've got to think through people that need to be out in our streets doing some of the key core jobs that we are asked to provide in our our neighborhoods continuously.

So I'm gonna pass this out and we for further discussion. Thank you.

Alright. Thank you. Councilmember Martin. Yes.

Make sure you can hear me. My, light just stays red even though the microphone works. My questions go back to COO Burks. You were sharing a little bit about some of our across the board salary increases, compensation increases for our general fund employees, public public safety. It's very exciting to hear that.

I wanted to delve a little bit more into our public safety, particularly police and fire, around what those I wasn't a council member when those were implemented. Glad they were done, but I just wanna get a little bit you know, of course, we have a very public conversation going right now about public safety compensation, particularly around fire. I just wanted to get those highlights, a little bit more so I can have those as we go as we move forward in our decision making.

Sure. I can actually get them to you in writing. We actually have costs attached to each one of them.

That's even better.

But, as we look at, you know, fire pay adjustments, from the COLA, that was about $5,000,000. If you look at police retention bonuses, 4.5 police take home vehicles, AFRD apparatus equipment, we've put $27,000,000 into new, public safety recruit housing, and the list just kind of almost goes on and on. Mhmm. And I will say, I I actually pulled I asked HR to just randomly pick, I said, a fire captain in Atlanta Fire Rescue. Where did they start at the beginning of this administration, and where are they now from a salary perspective?

And when you look at the COLAs and the COP and CLASS study, I've seen several individuals have about a 20% pay increase Sure. In the last four years. And so we are happy to provide the very specifics Mhmm. Of what we have done for public safety because this one looks across the board. Mhmm. But very specifically for public safety. Across the board, it's been $200,000,000 over four years.

Okay.

But we can definitely pull out the ones for public safety.

No. I appreciate that. I've I've gotten information from the the the fire the progressive firefighters professional firefighters, excuse me. And then I I spoke to some, you know, tenured firefighters, and they talked about the fact that we have a promotional structure that allows for our firefighters to move up in the ranks where they don't have to stay rank and file, and that makes up the difference for what we see in other jurisdictions where you happen to stay in your rank, is why they have a larger scale for sort of entry level, if that's a better a good way to put it. And so that nuance really helped me to understand where we were in that.

So I appreciate that. We don't have to belabor the point. I'll just wait to hear back from you on those details, and thank you for your response.

We can

hear I wanna talk a little bit also about our fine fees and forfeitures. I would imagine that the majority of that is sort of coming from I pay parking tickets all the time. I'm just I do pay my tickets.

Unfortunate. But

I I would imagine a lot of that is coming from those kinds of interactions with the public where they are either paying paying a parking ticket, they're paying a speeding ticket, or some other moving violation. I I all of those besides the the, I guess, the the I guess, is it BTL plus? I should know them. We should be very well acquainted acquainted.

I

would but the other side would be the speeding, moving violations. Is all of that flowing directly through the municipal courts, or is there another sort of capture mechanism, for that that revenue?

It flows through municipal court, but it also comes into the general fund.

Got it.

And the revenue team actually tracks it. But if you look at what comes in versus their budget

Yes.

The general fund is still supporting Sure. Their budget. So it's not like it's a full enterprise fund.

No. Absolutely. And I don't even I wouldn't I don't even look at it that way because, I mean, you got APD that's involved in that and probably more so than the courts, because they're, like, sort of at the initial capture. I I just want to understand the the flow of funds from that revenue perspective. And and a court can't be a revenue I'm sorry, a a enterprise fund because it's not designed to make money, but I just want to understand the flow.

The the Gulch Housing Trust, as well as the Economic Development Trust, I know the source of funding for the Gulch Housing Trust. What I don't know is how it's accessed, what it's being used for. I I saw that number that was a really good capture of what what's in it. But did anyone provide any insight on that? Maybe this is the might not be the wrong the right venue for that.

Sure. So the Gulch Housing Trust Fund was part of that Gulch development agreement. It was, funding that was set aside specifically for affordable housing within that footprint. Yes. It is, has coordination with the housing team in West Atlanta. There have the the projects have to be within that footprint, and it goes through a prioritization exercise to make sure that when those funds are utilized, that it goes directly to address and benefit affordable housing for that specific area.

Got it. So I I guess I I think I'm hearing you say that the trust fund is set up for housing within The Gulch.

Correct. Because the source of funding was actual the Gulch project itself, and it was a payment that was made by CIM to the city of Atlanta for affordable housing in The Gulch.

Got it. Alright. And then the economic development trust.

It is the same mechanism. The economic development trust was a component of that Gulch development agreement as well too. Mhmm. And it was a component to address not affordable housing, but address workforce, economic development, and other needs that were part of that same framework. And so this was kind of an add on to the conversations we had with councilmember Dozier earlier about that thoughtful, approach to these large scale projects.

Alright. And I appreciate that. I probably will ask my colleague, councilmember Westmoreland, for a more an in-depth dive into those two trusts at the CDHS level because I don't think I don't think this is appropriate Sure. That you dive too deep. But I appreciate what you all provided.

Yep. Thank you. Thank you so much, mister chairman.

Thank you. Council member Worthy.

Thank you, mister chairman. Thank you to all of you for this very informative presentation. Apologies in advance. Some of these questions may be emblematic of the fact that I'm a freshman and they may all know the answers to this. First question on the on the independent groups.

Obviously, that royal blue line is the smallest amount, and I'm keenly aware of the importance of the independence of those groups, the importance of an independence judiciary, the importance of an independent, OIG, this in a conversation about the independence or the importance of them being independent. I guess my question is where does the fiscal oversight come with the independent groups? I mean, they don't roll up an answer to COO Birx. I mean, once we once we vote on this budget, what where is the the oversight in the independent groups for the next three hundred and sixty four days?

That's a very good question. It's a it's a nuanced one. Of course, they are operating within the general fund, and they're operating within the framework. So they work closely with the CFO's office to give them guidance in terms of their budget, how to stay within it. But, ultimately, the governance of each independent group, they have boards that are over them that have the responsibility to kinda rein in any misspending or things that happens. And if there was an issue, which there's never an issue, but if there was an issue, for example, we would take it up to that board level. So the auditors, has a specific board. And if we if they were mismanaging funds, we would be addressed at the at the audit board level, but they never do. So we're happy and fortunate.

If you're happy, that's that's good news. I had a or I had a question and wanted to, start a conversation about under appraisal of commercial properties, but I think my colleague, mister Dozier, touched on that very well and got the information out, but know that I share those same concerns. My last question is on the revenue comparison by category. The 7.81 drop in other revenue, I understand that. If it's nonrecurring investment revenues

33.

That is something that I think it's fair to say is really kinda outside of our control. I mean, market forces

Yeah.

Well outside of our control. Walk me through the the 4.19% drop in building rentals in concessions. That's a that's a pretty steep drop. I I mean, you know, that point o two drop doesn't really jump out, but that 4.19 drop jumps out as pretty significant, and it seems to be more within our control than the other revenue drop that's the bigger drop. Can we talk about that a little bit more? I mean, are people just using our facilities less? Are people not interested in I mean, let's flesh that

out a little council member. In regards to what you're seeing here, last year, after the budget development was done, we sold 72 Marietta. And so because of that, we rightsized it in the upcoming budget, and so that's where you're seeing the drop as well as some of the surrounding pop parking leasing areas.

That is a wonderful answer to that question and explains it completely. And then, last question, and I know that this would be a prediction, but, you have f y twenty six, the dollar value of 1 mil. Are we able to estimate what the estimated dollar value of 1 mil in f y twenty seven is, or is that a premature question?

It's a little premature because we're in a Fulton County Digest, but we are optimistic because the cabs came in a little bit higher. So we we are thinking it'll be about maybe a little maybe 1.5 to 2% higher than where we're at now. So we're we're optimistic.

Thank you very much. I yield. Thank you, mister chairman.

Alright. Thank you. Council member Bond.

Yeah. Thank you. I have some a simple request and then some kind of high level questions. I see I don't remember what page it is. There's a kind of there it is. A pie chart, of the entire proposed budget. I was wondering if we could get a pie chart of just the general fund breakdown just because that's I think tells a more important story for us as council members. And I don't wanna spend time making one, which I could. But and uh-huh.

Point of clarification. Yeah. For the pie chart for general fund, do you want them by department, or do

you want them

by category or by

I would love department.

By department? Okay.

Yeah. Thank you. Also, I I, just wanna make sure I'm understanding all the numbers while we're discussing things at a really high level, and I know that we're gonna get into departmental breakdowns in the coming days and weeks. One thing, thank you council member Dozier for asking about the commercial property appraisals. Just wanna make sure that I'm understanding the numbers right. So I see for 2026 commercial property taxes composed 39%, and is that of the 48,800,000,000 for 2026?

Page 39.

Yes.

Page 31. So in that page, the the the yeah. So the breakdown by category

31.

For residential, that's 55% of that 378,000,000 that you see in f y twenty six. Mhmm. Yeah. That's of the taxes collected.

Okay.

And so then I see just on a high level. So our proposed general fund budget increased from last year by $19,000,000. And it looks like to me 16,000,000 of that is going to police services. So that is a represents a 5% increase in the proposed police budget, whereas we're seeing a 5% decrease in both transportation and parks and rec. And so I I just wanted to understand what is driving that because I know that, you know, multiple departments were asked to cut their proposed budget. So I I wanted to understand what's behind that.

Sure. And we'll dig deeper during each department's overview, but the primary driver for public safety was mandated and required pension obligations. So this is a required annual contribution that we have to pay into the pension plan. It is nonnegotiable. And, in order to have retirement, you have to pay that annual contribution.

That annual contribution is broken up amongst, police, fire, and general employees. And police being the largest of user of of retirement funds. That is the primary allocation as well as health and insurance benefits that have increased year over year as well too. Mhmm. So to maintain the level force at the same exact headcount, and we are mandated to contribute to their retirement, there was no math that would have had them in a in a different posture.

Mhmm. And and I know we're gonna get into this another day, but, do you off the top of your head, do you have the what what percentage of that 16,000,000 increase is going to the increased pension?

I don't. I think it's probably 8,000,000 or so of that 16 and and then health insurance and then the new recruits that were added on. So it's all personnel related, and you will see that in the more detailed presentation.

Okay. I think those are my questions.

Sure. Thank you. Council member Collins.

Sorry. Hi. Yes. I was watching well, as I was en route here, I was watching, the presentation. I just wanna have a question of clarity. I think most of my questions have been answered. But in terms of just wanna make sure I'm looking at this correctly. The slide on yes. It's not numbered. Well, let's see.

Yes. It will be slide 38. Just in terms of our debt service, I know what all of those pieces from slide 41 tells us what debt service is. It shows that, it's actually an increase from this year to next year. I just wanna make sure I'm looking at that correctly.

Which which slide? Which slide?

Yes. Excuse me. Slide 38 Mhmm. Where, FY '27 general fund expenditure comparison and the line in terms of debt service

Correct.

This year is 19,950,000. Next year, it will be 22,500,000, but it states the variance is 11.21. Does it seems a little off. I just wanted to a little bit more clarity on that.

Yes.

Since that will since that is kind of the largest variance in our expenditure comparisons.

Yes. It's, an 11,200,000 decrease from the adopted budget. You are comparing the projected year end expenses of f y twenty six. So Okay. Please, look at the '33 0.74 less twenty two point five three. That is the 11% reduction adopted budget to proposed budget. We've had some, great, efficiencies and savings in debt service this year.

Got it.

We were able to utilize some interest earned to offset our debt service payments this year to help with some of efficiency efforts.

Got it. And quick question. What what is the the finite what is the amount of the interest that we've been able to gain from our debt service?

We'll get that breakdown from you. There's, many different, components, to it, but it depends on each issuance that we have, and each one of them is in a separate segregated fund that earns its own interest. But I'll have happy to give that breakdown to you.

Okay. And then my last question, just for clarity, I know debt service encompasses as housing opportunity, homeless, municipal improvement projects, surface transportation projects. Just clear, why are those, which have become that which are top priorities for us? Why is housing and homeless opportunity consider or why are these considered debt service versus more strategic programs that could be embedded in other departments and or other, initiatives? Well,

those are the debt offerings that the city undertook. We issued a homeless opportunity bond. We issued a housing opportunity bond, and those require annual debt service repayments on that money that we borrowed. Yep. Which is a little different because these are what we call general obligation debt services that are that are not part of the geo mill structure.

These are funded by the general fund itself directly. And the other ones, they're done through conduit debt issuances, not through our referendum process. So moving Atlanta forward, renew Atlanta, those are referendum debt that goes to the public and the public votes on, and there's a specific mill assigned and segregated to pay for those debt issuances. The conduit debt is ones that we bring in front of city council for various needs. We've done one for transportation, needs to get ready for FIFA, and that was, we did that about two years ago. And then we did homeless opportunity and housing opportunity bonds that we issued through Invest Atlanta as a conduit issuer.

Okay. And so all of those that you just mentioned will is under will falls under the all other category on slide 41? And even if we were, to say do a tree, all of those pieces, like move Atlanta forward,

all of under in slide 41, that those what I just mentioned fall under the debt service The all other is a whole bunch of other things that are committed from nondepartmental, including our allocation to invest Atlanta and fees. These are more operational needs Mhmm. But don't necessarily have a specific category that they fall under.

Right. So just so you said move Atlanta forward, those referendum those referendum initiatives that we've asked taxpayers to actually vote on, those will fall under which category under nondepartmental?

No. Those are not in nondepartmental. Those are not in the general fund. Those are completely segregated from this conversation that we have now.

Okay. And where can I where could we find that that

In your budget book, in the back of the budget book, there is a whole debt and investment section in the budget book that highlights all the debt issuances? A good guide that you would see here on this slide is if you go over to the debt and investment section Mhmm. If you go to slide 53, slide 53 will show you, the major kind of debt issuing authorities that the city of Atlanta has. Under the general obligation portion, that geo debt Mhmm. That is where you would see, moving Atlanta forward, renew Atlanta, and the geo obligations.

In the debt and investment section of your budget book, you will see your department of aviation, department of watershed, and many of the other large debt outstandings, the repayment schedules. There's a lot of detail in that debt and investment section of the budget book. And if you have any more questions as you're going through it, we are happy to avail ourselves and give you any additional context.

Okay. Great. Thank you. I yield, mister chair. Thank you.

Alright. Thank you. I think we have gotten through all questions from council members that are present today. I did have one high level question more around the budget itself in terms of the would you say this budget has a has some still some one time solutions to close gaps, or would you say it's pretty structurally balanced?

So, yeah, that is a good question. So there's, for example, the last couple of years, we had an an art fighting because we there was a lot of available funds in defined contribution plan that's forfeited by employees who leave early. So remember, defined contribution plan has five year vesting period. Sometimes employees come in in a year, then they leave, and that that money that would it is it's released. We can slowly the auditors told us you gotta bring that back in.

So we've been slowly bringing that into the general fund. Once that's gone, that is a mechanism that can be utilized in the future. That's just to give an example of some of the the balancing needs that have happened over the years. Last year, we sold a building in 72 Marietta that didn't sit, serve a core operational, need for the general fund. These are things that you can't do year in, year out.

The main thing that you could do year in, year out is balance your core revenues, balance your core expenditures, gain some operational efficiency, and that is what the f y twenty seven budget is solving and what we're looking to ultimately, have us in a very sustained footing going forward so you're not relying on the nonrecurring and onetime, adjustments that were utilized over the last couple of years.

Alright. Well, thank you. Council member Bakhtari, jumping in there.

I know. So close. No. One one, quick question. First, I mean, I will ask questions as departments come up that I don't think are appropriate for today just around concerns of if we're currently this budget structure to best execute the administration's vision, but that will come out as we go through our, as our budget hearings continue.

But, CFO asked you this question last year, I wanna ask you again. This city does a lot for housing and homelessness even though it is not our mandate and is that of the county. I would like to know I mean, especially after I feel, and I'll say it openly, the performance that was put on over simply a few million dollars for them to pay to help with, wraparound services that this city put in place in the first place and spent more than triple doing, more than quadruple a lot of money. So I'm curious again how much if by your estimation, by the finance department's estimation, how much money is the city spending carrying Fulton County's water?

Yeah. The the city is if you look at we'll give you the breakdown. But just off the top of the head, we allocate 22% off the top of budget for affordable housing trust funds. We have the $20,000,000 allocation that goes strictly to affordable housing that's off the top. There's annual commitments that we have for debt service around, housing opportunity, homeless opportunity. Not most some of that is is captured from the affordable housing trust fund, but the others are not. They're still within the budget. There is diversion services. There's a whole bunch of other needs that the city provides as well, and they're really kind of core services for generally county and state level operations. Mhmm.

But the city has made sure that, you know, we have to fund them as well too. If and I'll let the COO kinda chime in about the philosophical approach to make sure that people aren't left behind in the city of Atlanta.

Yeah. I think you I think you touched it. We can certainly get the totals that we do. We make donations, as you know, to nonprofit organizations, some that you all have coordinated, that we have made to nonprofit organizations to assist in our homeless population. You know, I guess we while we do strongly feel that it is the county's responsibility, we are also a city who cares where, you know, we're just if it's in our backyard, in our front door, then we need to take care of it. And that's kind of the steps that we have taken. But if you look at the 500 rapid affordable housing that we did in one year Which

I believe you've been cut on the last one just a couple weeks ago. Correct? Yes.

It's correct.

Congratulations. To build that when we look at the cost of services for each one of those developments as well. So when you talk about supportive services, how much that cost? But we can definitely put all of that together. And it is. It is a it is something that we have taken on from closing encampments to housing people to doing everything we can for the least of these in this city so that no one feels left behind. But it is something that we have taken on, and we do need help and support with.

That was beautifully stated. So I'll be more direct in case our partners are listening, and I hope to say and hope to see that the agency that actually has a health department, which, of course, state law preempts us from touching that so we get creative with how we assist people. I think the least they could do is allocate 2% of their ginormous budget each year to helping people, which I believe CFO went about $20,000,000 around about, which is a bay barely a drop in the bucket for them, and I hope that we see this next next fiscal year, after this election year, we see the same level of interest in supporting initiatives when it comes to people who are experiencing homelessness and those who are not experiencing that are experiencing health issues. So I just wanted to highlight that and say thank you, and just wanna highlight again for the county that this city would be able to focus focus a lot more on things like project delivery if we weren't spending northwards of $40,000,000 doing their job around homelessness and housing. So I just needed to state that for the record.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Alright. Thank you, colleagues. I have twelve o six. So gonna say we appreciate CFO, COO, the finance team for giving us, this overview of the city's state of the city, today and the condition. And so we appreciate you all. Colleagues, we're gonna break for lunch. After lunch, everyone, we will have some unions that are in starting at 01:00. We'll have ask me. We'll have PACE, I a f f, and then IBPO will close us out today. So we appreciate everyone, and we are, on recess. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you.