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MURFREESBORO – Following the trend of previous years, Murfreesboro’s budget for Fiscal Year 2022-2023 (FY23) will not make any changes to the ad valorem tax rate.

According to the budget ordinance, which was unanimously approved by the Town Council at their meeting on June 22, the ad valorem tax rate is set at $0.66 per $100 of valuation. That amount hasn’t wavered in over a decade now.

The town will operate on a total of $4,698,107 for the new fiscal year, just a little over $1 million more than in FY22. Those total funds will be split between the General Fund and the Water and Sewer (Enterprise) Fund.

In the General Fund, the town is projecting a total of $2,413,275 to operate with during the new fiscal year which runs until June 30, 2023. That total is about $250,000 over the FY22 budget.

The largest sources of revenue for the General Fund are expected to come from ad valorem taxes ($785,000) and local sales tax ($500,000).

For General Fund expenditures, the departments which will receive the largest appropriations in FY23 include Police ($859,222), Sanitation ($332,025), Governing Body ($281,243), Administration ($253,850), and Fire ($177,040).

The Police and Governing Body departments will receive the largest increases in funding compared to the previous year, with a gain of $113,233 and $142,272, respectively.

The operating budget for the Water and Sewer (Enterprise) Fund will total $2,284,832 which is an increase of $825,000 from FY22.

A majority of Enterprise revenues are expected to come from charges for water ($960,000) and sewer ($770,000). The revenues budget also includes $355,332 from the American Rescue Plan and $150,000 for an Asset and Inventory Assessment Grant.

Expenditure allocations for departments in the Enterprise Fund will include $1,352,224 for Water; $511,344 for Sewer; and $421,265 for Wastewater Treatment. While the first two received increases, Wastewater Treatment’s allocation is a decrease from FY22.

“This is a balanced budget,” Mayor Hal Thomas announced at the June 22 meeting.

The council had previously met for several workshop sessions over the past few months to iron out the details of the FY23 budget.

A public hearing was held to receive comments on the new budget, but no citizens chose to speak. Following the short public hearing, Council member James Futrell motioned to adopt the budget and Craig Dennis provided the second.

The vote was unanimously in favor with no other discussion from the council.

The FY23 budget took effect on July 1.