Funding for external agencies and some unforeseen expenses highlighted a Thursday Augusta Commission workshop on the 2024 budget.
Commissioners spent most of two hours picking through items in Interim Administrator Takiyah Douse’s draft spending plan. The $1.16 billion budget increases funding for law enforcement and includes approximately $200 million in the general fund for basic government operations.
The budget includes $275,000 in new spending for Augusta Tomorrow and $150,000 for the Augusta Canal Authority, two external agencies not funded this year.
Augusta Tomorrow, the organization of downtown business leaders, requested $1.6 million. Douse’s budget gives it $275,000.
She said the funds would be used to expand the Augusta City Enterprises, or ACE, beautification program to Ellis and additional side streets and provide some services to the Riverwalk. The ACE program had been administered by the Downtown Development Authority.
Augusta Canal Authority, which has received general fund and sales tax allocations in the past, requested $300,000 for operations, such as insurance, security, utilities and maintenance of the city-owned facilities.
Douse’s budget recommended $150,000. Commissioners Wayne Guilfoyle and Catherine Smith McKnight each requested the amount be increased to the $300,000 requested by Canal Authority Executive Director Dayton Sherrouse, citing the canal’s popular trails and other recreational assets.
Sherrouse, who garnered a salary of $161,000, recently announced he is retiring from the authority. He told the Augusta Press it costs $2.5 million a year to maintain the canal before salaries and Discovery Center rent at Enterprise Mill.
Other external or quasi-governmental agencies, such as Augusta Georgia Land Bank Authority, the Downtown Development Authority and MACH Academy, are funded at 2023 levels, Douse said.
Commissioner Bobby Williams questioned why MACH Academy, a youth tennis and afterschool program, was only budgeted $220,000 while Newman Tennis Center is budgeted $371,520.
Douse said Augusta maintains the facilities on which MACH operates while city-owned Newman’s budget covers all of its operations.
New expenses that came as a surprise to some include Richmond County Board of Elections, which requested $1.06 million for 2024 elections, up from $259,200 in 2023.
The additional expense stems from the minimum of three elections – the countywide presidential and general primaries and November general election – the board has to conduct next year, Douse said.
Also unforeseen is the price tag for hiring an internal auditing firm to examine city departments, for which the city had budgeted $300,000. Bids have come in in excess of $450,000, while the city is in negotiations to try to get the price down, Douse said.
While Augusta has hired local CPA firms to conduct audits in the past, no local firm bid this time. Firms that submitted were Baker Tilly US, Plante & Morgan and UHY Advisors, according to a procurement document.
Bid documents state the city had intended for the selected firm to audit 25% of city departments and programs per year on a four-year cycle.
Commissioner Stacy Pulliam asked how external agencies go about making budget requests. Douse said they obtain a packet from the Finance Department and submit it with the prior year’s audit, all revenue sources, current funding needs and the reasons for those amounts.
In a final push, Commissioner Sean Frantom asked if it was possible to identify $1 million to cut from the general fund budget.
Douse said she’s made prior recommendations for savings that the commission has received as information. A $1 million cut would require reductions across programs, operations and possibly staff, she said.
