The City of Montgomery’s budget proposal for fiscal year 2025 is $20.3 million higher than last year
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The Montgomery City Council met at City Hall on Tuesday night, and several items came up that were either postponed until the next meeting or referred to committees. One of these is an ordinance that would greenlight the development of solar power plant sites, and the other is a resolution that would repeal the legislation that created the City and County of Montgomery Human Resources Committee and allow the city to create its own human resources committee.
Mayor Steven Reed did not attend Tuesday night’s meeting, but presented the city’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2025 via video that played on a large screen. Reed is proposing a budget of nearly $332 million, which is about $20.3 million more than last year’s budget. He says more services need to be provided because companies like Meta and Amazon are coming to town. He says more staff needs to be hired and equipment needs to be purchased to meet the needs of citizens.
Mayor Reed says, “Let me explain to you how the City can afford the increases in this budget proposal. In addition to stable growth in certain revenue sources, the fiscal year 2025 revenue projections include an increase in business license fees, which is subject to Council approval by ordinance.”
Another topic of discussion was a resolution that would prohibit Mayor Reed from entering into contracts over $25,000 without the council’s permission. The resolution was postponed until the next meeting and is supported by Council Member Andrew Szymanski.
“We’re talking tonight about compliance, good governance and accountability, and that’s all we’re trying to do. We’re looking at the other cities and making sure the council is well informed about how we’re spending the taxpayer dollars. We keep talking about being good stewards of the city budget – this is one way for us to do that, and I think this is a really important opportunity for us to show that we can be accountable to our constituents in this way as well,” Szymanski said.
We will receive further information on the other changes in the city’s draft budget in the next few days. The budget will be discussed in a public hearing and voted on in September. This year’s increase compared to last year’s draft budget is 6.5 percent.
