News Flash

City Manager Releases Recommended Budget

[BREVARD, N.C., May 2, 2023] – Yesterday evening, City Manager Wilson Hooper presented to the Brevard City Council his recommended budget for fiscal year 2023-2024. The budget contains a number of new investments designed to accomplish City Council priorities. 

The recommendation’s highlights include the following:

• “Two pennies for housing”: The recommended budget dedicates $.02 of the proposed $.48 millage rate—approximately $264,000—to the creation and maintenance of affordable housing in the City of Brevard. 
• Fully funds the recommendations of the recently concluded “Classification and Compensation Study,” which keeps employee compensation competitive with other area local governments with whom the City competes for employees, andoffers a 5% Cost of Living Adjustment to all employees. 
• Sets aside $150,000 for professional services related to the preliminary design and engineering needed for Brevard’s wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) upgrade/replacement. 
• Continues to endow capital funds dedicated to downtown improvements and the Estatoe Trail, though to a lesser degree than previous years. 

These endowments correspond with the priorities identified by City Council during its March 1-2, 2023 Strategic Planning Retreat. 

The new spending is funded via a combination of modest natural growth in the City’s three main revenue sources (property tax, sales tax, and interest income), a proposed $.03 increase in the City’s property tax rate, and the continuation of Brevard’s planned 4% yearly increases on its utility rates. 

“For modest additional taxes and fees, the taxpayers of Brevard can ensure their friends and neighbors who work for the City are paid fairly and competitively, that Brevard can start the long process of creating more housing units affordable to those of modest means, and that our utility infrastructure can be made to serve the city for another fifty years,” said Hooper. 

The proposed $.03 increase will equate to $105 in additional property taxes per year for a property with an assessed value of $350,000. For a property that uses 3,000 gallons of water per month—the approximate average residential consumption figure—the 4% utility rate increase will equate to about $2 more per month. 

The full budget document is available at the link below.

https://www.cityofbrevard.com/DocumentCenter/View/4650/FY2324-Managers-Recommended-budget---web-version 

A public hearing will be held on Monday, May 15, 2023, at 5:30 PM in the Brevard City Hall Council Chamber.