City Council - public_hearing

leading straight into that public hearing. You can speak at the public hearing.

Yeah, absolutely. If anyone wants to come speak on public issues regarding the budget, now's your opportunity. We'll call the public hearing to order and we'll move down to section 2.1, opening remarks concerning the general fund and enterprise fund Budgets for fiscal year 2026 through 2027. We will hear from Mr. Brian Carter.

Thank you, Mayor, members of council. Appreciate the opportunity to present this balanced budget to you. I want to express gratitude to Justin Black and our finance department for the tremendous amount of work that they put into the preparation of these documents. You have at your seat a copy of the budget worksheet, excuse me, workbook. You also have copies of the general budget and then the more detailed line item budget. You also have a copy of a public information flyer that's available at this meeting, or will be available, and then also available online. I'm pleased to present to you a budget this year that includes no tax increase. The operating budgets for the fiscal year 2026 and 2027 are as follows. The general fund revenues total $29,080,000. The water and sewer fund revenues total $28,200,000. The general fund property tax revenue was estimated using the same 66.2 in operating millage and 6.6 in debt service millage as the previous year the proposed budget does not include any increase in operating millage the 6.6 mills are collected and earmarked for the debt retirement of the 2020 and 2023 general obligation bonds the water and sewer revenue is estimated using the rate ordinance that was approved by city council in may of 2025. The recommended fiscal year 2026-2027 transfer to the general fund from the water and sewer fund is $4,947,000, and that is in accordance with the city's financial policies. This budget includes funding vehicle and equipment requests across all funds. The requested budget plan includes funding for up to a 3% merit increase for employees and a 2% cost of living across the board increase for employees that would be awarded on July 1st of 2026. The calendar year's premiums under the state health plan are projected with no increase in the employer portion. as well as an experience rating factor of zero, which is very positive for the city. As it has done in the past, I recommend that the city continue to pay the employees part of the monthly premium for health insurance, and the cost has been included in the budget. There is no increase in the amount that employees pay toward the premium. The departmental line item budget requests, including equipment debt service, are attached in the information. They're provided to you with the information at your seat. The request totaled $29,080,000 for the general fund and $28,200,000 for the water and sewer fund, which represents the presentation of a balanced budget. The overall budget includes no new employee positions throughout the city. The city's 10-year capital improvement plans for both the general fund and the water and sewer fund are also included in this budget, and you will find that in Section 5. We have a special revenue fund regarding the hospitality tax and both the funding and the expenditures for the hospitality tax are in the amount of $3,100,000 that is balanced as well. And you will find that in section two in your budget. All of council's goals and priorities are funded through the proposed budget. And we also have plans. We've received information regarding the fire department. We will be studying that throughout the year. One of council goals and priorities is to complete a compensation study for our police officers and our firefighters. We will be conducting that throughout the year. And at some point we'll come back to council with recommendations related to both of those studies. Moving forward with those studies has been included, and the review of those studies has been included in this proposed budget. With that, I'm available for any questions, but that sums up my presentation.

Any questions or comments from council before we open up to anyone who wants to come up and speak during the public hearing? Thank you all for your hard work. I know it's a big task putting it together. We appreciate it.

Oh Mister one question there Mister Carter, do you know what the property taxes. We're in 2025 2026 budget by any chance.

have to go back and be sure about that millage i can i will get that information for you yeah that in the business license i'm just curious if it went up or down well the 2025 2026 budget the millage is the same as what's being proposed here in the 2026 2027. so it's it's the same village so the property tax i mean so the property tax should be at 10 million Oh, I'm sorry. You're talking about the amounts. Yeah, the amount. You're talking about the amounts, not the amount of the millage. Right. Our projected property tax revenue is $10,305,000 for this year.

Right.

That will be higher than last year due to our growth.

And what about the business license and franchise fees? Did it go up or down?

I'm certain it went up, but I do not have the specific numbers. The total collections, not the fees themselves. The total collections, correct. The fees have remained the same. This budget does not propose any increase in permit fees or business license fees outside of anything that has to be adopted so that we are in compliance with IRS requirements involving the NAICS code.

Any other questions or comments? Hearing none, at this time we'll open the floor up to anyone who would like to come speak regarding the budget. If you want to come speak, please come up and identify yourself at the podium. Anyone? Come up and address the audience, please, and council. Howard, if you would just identify yourself over there.

Howard Hunt. I live at 640 B Avenue, West Columbia. Good to see you.

You too. That was a beautiful painting you did.

Thank you. I'm impressed that a Democrat made a balanced budget. Quick question. This is a nonpartisan seat.

I'll crack the record on that.

This is a lead-in to what we're going to talk to next. The property tax, does that include... 4% or 6%? How does that work out as far as investing property, 6% compared to primary residence, 4%?

So the number for property tax includes collections for both of those.

So if the investor properties go away, that's going to lower the property tax? If a lot of the investment properties turn into single-family primary residence?

So the tax collected off of single-family owner-occupied homes is a less dollar amount to a comparable non-qualifying single-family owner-occupied home.

Right. So people that can't afford to keep the house because they can't go Airbnb or short-term rental and they sell it to somebody who's going to make it a primary home, the city's going to lose tax income.

There would certainly be a lower amount of tax dollars collected if instead of being taxed at the 6% rate, if it met the criteria and switched over to a 4% taxable process. Okay, thank you. If it met all those criteria. Anyone else? Seeing no interest from anyone else, we'll close out the public comment section and end the public hearing. Is that fine with staff? Yes, sir. All right. Come on up and identify yourself if you would. Sorry, I couldn't hear you. If you don't mind, come on up. Thank you for joining us. So you can only do public input regarding the budget at this time. and the time for public input on other matters, we'd be happy to hear from you at any point, but you need to sign up to be added to the agenda to address council, and the cutoff for that is close the business on Thursdays before the meeting, if I'm not mistaken. Is that right, Madam Clerk? Yeah. But if you have any budgetary issues you'd like to discuss, we'd be happy to hear from you. No, I'm just a future homeowner in the avenues that we're going to kind of... Good to see you. Thank you. Hey, ma'am. The issues that we're taking up tonight, we're taking up on first reading for short-term rental. I assume your interest is in short-term rental. I think you and I have had some brief interactions. And we would be happy to hear from you. This will have to come back before us for a second reading. And we would love to hear from you and hear your input whenever we take it up for second reading. Please sign up to come speak. Yeah, absolutely.

Thanks. I think she could even sign up tonight, right? Yeah, you could sign up tonight. For the next meeting.

Thank you, Mr. Green. Anyone else have any budgetary issues you'd like to discuss? Hearing none, we'll go ahead and close the budget public hearing out. And at this time, we will open up the regular monthly city council meeting. We'll call that to order.