Georgetown’s budget proposal leaves the town with a deficit just under $1.6 million dollars, which it will balance with an interfund transfer.
“As with anything, costs continue to go up. Municipal governments are not immune to increases in costs.” said Georgetown Town Manager Gene Dvornick.
Dvornick says rising costs are coming from utilities, chemical costs related to water and sewer treatment, as well as salary and benefit costs for town employees. He also notes that employee costs include more for the police department.
“For the first time in quite some time, we are actually at our fully authorized staffing level. So, I think that's a very positive [piece] of information for the town" he said.
The Georgetown Police Department currently employs 25 officers according to Police Chief Ralph Holm Jr., who also presented at this week's town council meeting.
The initial budget presentation was given this week before town council and Mayor Bill West. They plan to hold a public budget workshop before making any decisions.
Dvornick says the city remains willing to spend but is choosy on what they spend on.
“We continue to be very aggressive with how we’re spending money, we’re very judicious in how we look at things and how we spend our precious dollars” he said. "We should have, at the budget workshop, a graphic that shows we've never had to transfer those interfund monies because our revenues exceed the revenue expectation and, generally, our expenses are less than what was budgeted"
Preliminary budget graphics show the city's total projected revenue for FY27 to be just over $11.5 million, and the expected expenditures to be $12.2 million- additionally, the city will owe $840,000 in debt and another $60,000 in capital expenditures.
Dvornick says that meeting will be in early April and will include an opportunity for public comment, though a date has not been finalized
