The FY23/24 Budget Season Begins
We’ve hit the start of Lexington’s Budget Season! We’re still a long ways from actually seeing a draft of the FY23/24 budget, but conversations are kickstarting this week between and within Council and the Administration.
To start things off, we had a busy Budget, Finance, and Economic Development (BFED) Committee on Tuesday. The Committee elected Council At-Large Member James Brown as Chair — he then appointed fellow At-Large Member Chuck Ellinger as Vice Chair.
The Committee then heard an update on the city's finances and the current FY22/23 Budget. As a reminder, the city's budget operates on a July - June Fiscal Year, so we're just past the halfway point in the current budget year.
This year's budget has, so far, been going well.
Overall, as of December 31, 2022, the current city budget has a $26 million+ budget surplus
This surplus comes from higher-than-expected revenue and lower-than expected expenses.
On the Revenue side, Payroll Withholding taxes, Business Net Profit taxes, as well as others were up significantly over the city's projections.
Both Personnel and Operating Expenses came in under budget in the first half of the Fiscal Year as well.
You can view the Budget Update presentation slides starting on page 4 of this packet.
On Wednesday, February 8th, Council and the Mayor held a joint budget retreat to discuss the financial landscape and their priorities for next fiscal year's budget.
Some of the priorities shared by both Council and the Mayor were funding bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure, increasing funding for the Nonprofit Capital Grant program, studying options for a new City Hall building, and developing new workforce development programs.
It's worth noting that the Mayor's Administration will not have final revenue projections until mid-March. Due to that, neither Council nor the Mayor attached specific dollar amounts to their priorities. Similarly, depending on the revenue projections, many of their priorities may not be able to be included in the final budget.
Don't remember much about the budget process? That's ok! We have a whole page explaining how it works.
