Tuscaloosa to Vote on City Budgets Tonight

It is budget time in the City of Tuscaloosa. Among the items to be considered in the lengthy 82-page agenda for tonight's Tuscaloosa City Council Meeting are proposals for the adoption of the city's main budgets for fiscal year 2025.

State law requires a municipality's mayor to annually prepare and submit a proposed budget to the council. After public hearing, the council can adopt an ordinance providing the municipal budget. If the council fails to adopt a budget for the ensuing fiscal year by the first day of the fiscal year (October 1st), the amounts appropriated for the preceding year will be appropriated for the ensuing year on a month-to-month basis until the council adopts a budget.

The council will vote on a proposed General Fund Budget of $198,510,791.00, an Elevate Tuscaloosa Budget of $282,848,938.00, a Water and Sewer Budget of $75,808,710.00 and a Water and Sewer Fund Budget of $38,023.00.

In the case of the Water and Sewer Budget there is a $4,665,771 shortfall.

According to the Alabama League of Municipalities, "A budget is more than a perfunctory, itemized plan of proposed expenditures balanced against estimated revenues for the fiscal period. It is an authorization for the administration to implement municipal policy during the coming year. It is a means of attaining unity in administration by drawing all municipal programs together for overall scrutiny. It is also a means of assuring adequacy of municipal services in the most efficient manner."

Government and non-governmental organizations have spent the last several weeks presenting their budget proposals to the Tuscaloosa City Council Finance Committee. That committee has placed a rule of guidance for a balanced budget to each organization. However, inflation and pressure to provide better services forced most organizations to ask for a budget increase.

Mayor Walt Maddox's proposed budget for the next fiscal year would marginally increase the cost of city services and give a raise to all municipal employees. His budget if adopted tonight, twill bump the average expenditure per household by about $12 more each month on city services. The bulk of that is from a proposed increase in water & sewer rates, which Maddox says would raise the average customer's bill by $10.59 but the impact will vary by use.

The mayor's FY25 budget recommendations can be found in a 230-page Budget Booklet.

The council meets at 6:00pm tonight at Tuscaloosa City Hall downtown.