CRESTVIEW — City Clerk Betsy Roy introduced the preliminary 2016-17 budget, noting city revenues are expected to rise with the improvement of property values.
Roy predicted "a conservative 3 percent increase in tax revenue over last year," and also expects state sharing revenue, such as fuel and locally generated sales taxes, will increase.
While the budget is still undergoing a few tweaks, it will most likely fall in the $29 to $30 million range, she said, which is roughly the same as the current fiscal year's budget.
Meeting in a June 30 workshop, the City Council discussed a few generalities before meeting with individual department heads over the next several weeks.
The next public budget workshop will be July 14, followed by a special meeting on July 25 to set the tentative millage.
Councilmen gave no indication if they will raise, lower or keep the millage at its current rate, but, Roy told them, "Remember when it's set it can go down but not up."
Public hearings on the new budget are tentatively scheduled for Sept. 9 and 22, but a series of workshops to hash out the final budget will be held before then.
"The goal is, everything is settled long before those public hearings so we don't need to have meeting after meeting after meeting," Roy said.
The 42-page budget binders Roy distributed at the Thursday meeting contain each department head's requested budget.
"If they requested it, it's in this budget," she said. "If it's personnel, capital equipment, whatever, it's in this budget."
While past budgets have been balanced by transferring money from the utility fund to the general fund, Roy said the city's improved financial shape won't require that next year.
"We're in good shape," Roy said.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Preliminary 2016-17 Crestview budget introduced (VIDEO)