The City of Grovetown held a public budget hearing for the 2023-24 fiscal year on Tuesday, May 2.
Bradley Smith, director of finance officer, said the general fund projected revenue is $13.7 million. The revenues include property taxes ($4,060,000), local option sales tax ($3.9 million), other taxes ($2.8 million), garbage fees ($1.7 million), LMIG ($140,000), fines and forfeitures ($421,000), licenses, fees and permits ($490,000), miscellaneous ($121,000).
“Property taxes and local option sales taxes are our largest sources of revenue,” Smith said. “The other taxes… is going to be the franchise fees. You’re going to see franchise fees in there, alcohol taxes, title ad valorem tax, that’s going to be included in your other taxes. Garbage fees is the amount we collect for the service that we provide. LMIG is just a transportation amount we get every year based on centerline road mileages. Fines and forfeitures is going to be through your public safety department. License, fees and permits is planning and development, as well as fees we collect for rentals at recreation. Then miscellaneous is just what it says, miscellaneous. It’s small amounts we collect year over year that don’t really fit in any of these other categories.”
The projected expenditures are: general government ($4.4 million), public works ($2.7 million), public safety ($4.4 million), recreation and leisure ($1.2 million), planning and zoning ($721,665) and municipal court ($297,842) for a total of $13,733,550. This means there is a balanced budget.
“(General government) is your administration department,” Smith said. “You’ll note that the administration department is relatively large, but do note that the administration department pays the retirement and it pays the insurance of every other department in the general fund…Then you’ll note that public safety, that’s going to be our fire department, if anybody here is Grovetown…the public safety is our fire and police, that’s our next largest department, followed by public works, which includes streets and our maintenance shop.”
The city had four priorities with this budget: personnel, parks and cityscape improvements, infrastructure improvements and equipment improvements, Smith said.
“Personnel, we’re going to continue to invest in our people,” Smith said. “We’re under a merit system here at the city of Grovetown meaning if you perform up to the certain level of exceeding expectations we go ahead and award those employees based off of that. But we also want to provide so our employees can get better.”
The city is looking at upgrades to Goodale Park and Liberty Park Community Center, adding a multi-use field at Liberty Park. A $1.2 million improvement is being looked at for the community center, Smith said.
The first reading of the budget will be held during the city council meeting on Monday, May 8 at 6:30 p.m. To view the budget public hearing, visit the City of Grovetown Facebook page.
