The annual City budget serves as the primary policy tool for the City Council. It determines the level of services the Council wants to provide citizens of Fredericksburg as well as any new capital projects and new employees the Council wants to fund. Due to the importance of this document, the development of the budget is a time-consuming process that provides several opportunities for public input. The FY 2024 budget process started on May 25th with a budget work session setting City Council major priorities. This meeting was followed by the June 6th presentation of the City’s Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) to the Council. City staff met during the week of June 21-29 to present their upcoming fiscal year budget requests. On July 5th, we held a public hearing for citizen input on our FY 2024 budget. Additional budget work sessions were conducted on July 24th (General Fund), July 26th (Enterprise & Special Funds), August 7th (Potential bond projects and other items), and August 10th (Joint City Council and Commissioners work session). Capital expenditure requests and fund balance for each fund were provided as supplemental information for transparency purposes and for the clear illustration of revenues, expenditures, and available reserves. New employee requests were supplied to City Council as an item of discussion but were not included in the budgeted expenses.
Following the initial budget meetings, staff revised the proposed budget based on input and direction from City Council. The draft proposed budget is preliminary in nature and will be discussed and modified during the budget workshop scheduled for Thursday, August 17th. Following the budget work session, a public hearing will be held on Monday, August 21st regarding the FY 2024 proposed budget. City Council will also discuss and consider approving the proposed tax rate during the public hearing. Revisions to the proposed budget made by City Council following the public hearing will be included in a revised proposed budget that will be presented for final adoption during the regular City Council meeting scheduled for Tuesday, September 19th. If City Council votes to increase the rate over the no new revenue tax rate, an additional public hearing is required. This public hearing is tentatively scheduled for Wednesday, September 13th at 1:00 p.m. at the Lady Bird Johnson Golf Course Cardinal Room.
