The City of Thomasville will hold a public hearing on Thursday, November 30 at 5:30 pm to receive public comments on the City’s proposed budget for 2024. The proposed budget is $135,369,460, which is a 4.3% increase over the 2023 budget.
Thomasville’s 2024 proposed budget does not include any funding from property tax, as has been the case since 2012. Instead, Thomasville relies on transfers from the City’s Electric Fund to cover shortfalls that exist without a dedicated funding source for the General Fund. The General Fund is comprised of governmental services, such as streets, public safety and economic development that are traditionally funded in other communities by a property tax. To support these important services, Thomasville’s 2024 proposed budget includes a transfer from the Electric Fund of $12.4 million to the General Fund, which will create a loss of $5.2 million in the Electric Fund.
According to City Manager Alan Carson, the City of Thomasville is unique in that no property tax has been levied for more than a decade. “This is not the typical scenario for most communities,” said Carson. “Typically, a property tax helps to fund many large-scale projects, such as capital improvements, storm water upgrades, sidewalk and park improvements, and street paving. Without this revenue source, we have relied on our utility funds to support our general fund,” Carson explained. “Unfortunately, this has created pressure on these funds that we must address. As we do with each budget cycle, we must carefully consider all expenses and capital needs to bring the leanest budget possible to City Council for consideration.”
The City of Thomasville’s budgeting process began many months earlier when department heads submitted their budget needs for 2024. Carson explained that the City’s financial position is always top of mind for staff. “Staff understands the financial position of the City, so these are not ‘wants’ that they submit; rather, these are infrastructure, capital, and equipment needs that we must carefully consider.” Carson said that the initial capital and project needs totaled more than $60 million.
“However, as part of the budget process, we’ve had to take a very hard look at our expenses, capital improvement plans, and all budget needs and prioritize what was absolutely necessary,” he said. “This is something that we do annually. This year, because of the pressure on our utility funds, particularly the Electric Fund, it was even more crucial that we make substantial cuts to our budget. This is a delicate balancing act as we try to trim the budget as much as possible while also meeting the needs of our community in the most economical way possible.”
Carson said that this year, roughly $26 million in capital needs were cut from the initial budget, bringing it down significantly to about $34 million, which includes $16 million in designated funding from SPLOST, ARPA, LOST and other funding sources. City leadership then began looking at other ways to reduce costs, such as reducing the events budget by nearly 25%. “We aim to be good stewards of the City’s finances, and that means having to make the hard call about what to eliminate from the budget when the funding is just not there,” he said. Carson explained that everything from position allocations, special events, training requests and equipment purchases were evaluated carefully during this year’s budget process.
While some capital projects will be paused due to funding limits, some will be able to move forward because they have been allocated grant funding. “We are aggressive in our pursuit of grant funding, so projects that have designated funding sources will be able to proceed in 2024,” Carson noted. “Others will need to be delayed until we have the additional revenue to invest in these improvements.” Construction of new downtown restrooms, renovations and repairs to the City of Thomasville Administration Building, implementation of the 2023 street resurfacing and sidewalk plan, and the Remington Avenue Streetscape Project are examples of some of the projects that were removed from the 2024 budget.
“Original bids for our Remington Avenue Streetscape Project started at $10 million and have since doubled in price, prompting us to reassess what we can successfully complete in the upcoming fiscal year,” said Carson. “Unfortunately, we are not immune to the impact we have all felt from rising costs. A significant rise in supply and maintenance expenses over the past three years has continued to impact the City of Thomasville’s budget.”
The surge in material costs has consistently impacted project bids, with area contractors submitting proposals reflecting up to a 65% increase. “We’ve tried to shoulder as much of these increased costs as possible, but we are now at a point where that is no longer possible,” Carson said, noting that the 2024 budget will include adjustments to several utilities, including electric, water, wastewater, and solid waste.
“Adjusting rates is never anything we do lightly,” said Carson. “In fact, we have resisted raising our rates where they really should be to be more in line with the cost of providing services for some time. Our electric rates, for example, have not been adjusted since 2013. However, rising supply costs continue to put more pressure on utilities to meet the growing needs of our community.” Carson said that modest increases to rates now will help begin to bring financial stability to these important revenue streams.
While many capital projects were considered for 2024, there are several that have been included. Improvements to Balfour Park/Varnedoe Field, Paradise Park and Cassidy Road Park are slated for implementation in the year ahead. “We have secured some grant funding to assist with bringing park improvements to our community,” Carson said. “The recently completed park study results elevated these three neighborhood parks to the priority list, so we plan to begin looking at these parks in 2024.”
Carson noted that City leadership has worked to create a budget that is effective but lean while still providing services to the community. Potential grant opportunities are also continuously researched to fill in the gap left by revenue shortfalls. “The 2024 budget also includes a runway expansion at the Thomasville Regional Airport and Wastewater Treatment Plant updates, both of which are being largely funded through grants staff has secured,” he said.
The Thomasville City Council will consider a motion to approve the proposed 2024 budget at its regular meeting on Monday, December 11. The meeting will be held at 6:00 p.m. in Council Chambers, 144 East Jackson Street. The proposed budget is available on the City’s website, Thomasville.org.