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AHOSKIE – Town officials here have agreed on a new operating budget, one that does not include a tax increase.

At their regularly scheduled meeting here Tuesday evening, the Ahoskie Town Council unanimously approved the operating budget for Fiscal Year 2022-23. That approval came after a public hearing where no one offered comments.

The property tax rate remains unchanged at 81 cents (per $100 of value) despite the fact that the new General Fund budget of $6,618,504 is nearly one million dollars higher than the one adopted last year at this time ($5,873,225).

The main sources of revenue in the FY 22-23 budget include property taxes ($2.4 million), the town’s share of the local option sales tax ($1.5 million), the sale of fixed assets ($628,000), garbage fees ($581,708), refunds/reimbursements ($452,700), motor vehicle taxes ($294,000), utilities franchise tax ($205,749), Powell Bill allocation ($160,329), and federal grants ($102,000).

On the expenditures side of the new budget, the Ahoskie Police Department tops the allocations list at $2.8 million. Other departments receiving the lion’s share of the funding are Administration ($791,667), Fire Department ($556,659), Public Works ($542,286), Environmental Protection ($518,197), Debt Service ($475,589), and Public Buildings & Grounds ($379,465).

Ahoskie’s Enterprise Fund (water and sewer) is budgeted at $3,930,056, which is slightly higher than the $3,700,500 in the current year’s budget. The majority of those operating funds are generated by user fees, which total $3,004272.

The new budget is effective July 1.