Springfield City Council has approved a fiscal year 2015 budget, and the proposed budget is a 12 percent increase over the current spending plan.
The city is proposing a $2.2 million budget, and the FY14 budget is $1.95 million. The streets/lanes department is getting the biggest chunk of the proposed budget, more than $550,000. The city also will spend nearly $399,000 on its fire department and more than $484,000 on its police department.
Council members approved a millage rate increase from 4.3 to 4.8. The millage had been at 4.3 since 2006.
The pending budget also calls for almost $234,000 in spending for administration and nearly $243,000 in general government outlays.
Spending for administration and for the police is expected to go up about $14,000 for each. Spending for the fire department is projected to jump by nearly $80,000, and the general government budget is rising by $61,000.
The city is projecting to collect more in taxes for FY15 than FY14, going from $1.02 million in property tax revenue to $1.17 million.
FY15 budget projections call for police fines and fees to increase from approximately $140,000 to more than $201,000. Fire fees are increasing slightly, by $1,000. The city also will use $50,000 from reserve, having used $27,972 in reserves for FY14.
Water-sewer fund revenues are anticipated to climb from $1.1 million to $1.4 million. Expenditures for water-sewer operations are increasing about $90,000 from $1 million to almost $1.1 million. The total net result is $301,780 revenue for the water-sewer fund. Sanitation fund revenues and expenditures are pegged at $156,000.
Expenditures for the Mars Theatre are expected to increase from $190,190 to $264,396, matching the projected revenues.
Springfield’s special purpose local option sales tax revenue is going from $1.36 million to $1.49 million, with expenditures under SPLOST also going from $1.36 million to $1.49 million. The city is projecting to apply $1.2 million in SPLOST reserves for its coming fiscal year SPLOST account.
The budget will go into effect Jan. 1, 2015.
