Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

MURFREESBORO – With little discussion and then a unanimous vote, the Murfreesboro Town Council approved the budget ordinance for Fiscal Year 2023-2024 (FY24) at their meeting on June 14.

The council had previously met for several workshop sessions over the past few months to decide on the details of the FY24 budget. A public hearing for the budget was held at Wednesday’s meeting, but no citizens in attendance chose to speak for or against the proposal.

Council member Jay Revelle motioned to the adopt the budget, and Berna Stephens provided the second. Everyone voted in favor.

“We have a budget that is balanced,” announced Mayor Hal Thomas.

He noted that the ad valorem tax rate remained unchanged, as it has been for over a decade. That rate is set at $0.66 per $100 of valuation.

The town will operate on a total of $3,871,601 for the new fiscal year, which is a reduction of a little over $826,000 from FY23. That total 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 $2,193,901 to operate with during the new fiscal year which runs until June 30, 2024. That is a reduction of approximately $219,000 from the previous budget.

The largest sources of revenues for the General Fund are expected to come from ad valorem taxes ($774,000) and local sales tax ($525,000).

Though projected revenue from ad valorem taxes is slightly down in this budget, the town is expecting an increase in local sales tax revenues.

For General Fund expenditures, the departments which will receive the largest appropriations in FY24 include Police ($906,026), Sanitation ($338,200), Administration ($281,696), Fire ($164,697), and Governing Body ($151,781).

These same five departments received the highest allocations in the FY23 budget as well. Police received a $46,804 increase in funding in the FY24 budget and Administration gained $27,846. Sanitation’s allocation was also slightly up, while Fire and Governing Body had reductions in their allocations compared to FY23.

The operating budget for the Water and Sewer (Enterprise) Fund will total $1,677,700, which is a decrease of approximately $607,000 from FY23.

A majority of Enterprise revenues are expected to come from charges for water ($815,000) and sewer ($800,000).

The FY23 budget for Enterprise Revenues also included funds from the American Rescue Plan and an Asset and Inventory Assessment Grant. These funds were non-recurring and are not included in the new FY24 budget.

Expenditure allocations in the Enterprise Fund will include $855,330 for Water; $345,206 for Sewer; and $477,165 for Wastewater Treatment. While the first two received decreases to their budget appropriations, Wastewater Treatment’s allocation is up almost $56,000 from FY23.

During council reports at the end of Wednesday’s meeting, everyone thanked Town Administrator Carolyn Brown and Deputy Town Clerk Corrie Harrison for their hard work in preparing the FY24 budget.

The new budget takes effect on July 1.