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                    "Ward 5 Councilman Gary Jefferson, left, listens as Ward 6 Councilman Jason Spears discusses the Fiscal Year 2027 budget during a meeting at City Hall. The council has yet to finalize the budget, but on Thursday, the board voted to pull $1.25 million from reserves to pay down debt and jumpstart amphitheater operations. Emma McRae/Dispatch Staff\t\n\t\t\tWhile the council has yet to finalize the city\u2019s Fiscal Year 2027 budget, it will require pulling $1.25 million from reserves to pay down debt and jumpstart amphitheater operations.\nBecause the city has kept the same tax rate of 53 mills for FY 2027, the budget will not include a tax increase.\nDuring a Thursday budget session at City Hall, the council unanimously approved allocating $749,000 to pay off two tax increment financing bonds \u2013 one for the University Mall development on Wilkins-Wise Road and the other for the Moore\u2019s Creek property on 18th Avenue \u2013 carrying interest rates greater than 7%.\nWard 6 Councilman Jason Spears, who proposed paying off the bonds, said the money had effectively already been collected for that purpose, though it had not been formally earmarked. In other words, it should not be sitting in the fund balance at all.\n\u201cWhile I understand it seems like \u2026 that\u2019s a big ask to go into it, the money was already collected for this purpose,\u201d he said. \u201cIt just wasn\u2019t accounted for on those line items for that actual need that we go ahead and put the money aside to pay those TIF bonds off.\u201d\nSpears said retiring the bonds will stop the city from routing ad valorem tax collections \u201cback out the door\u201d to cover debt service, especially as the bonds reach the 11-year mark, at which point they can be retired. The Moore\u2019s Creek bond reached that threshold, while the University Mall bond will hit that mark in November, he said.\nThe council also approved a $500,000 allocation to fund operational costs for the Sen. Terry Brown Amphitheater on the Island once its complete, an increase from the initial $300,000 placeholder Chief Financial Officer Jim Brigham had for the venue.\nBoth Mayor Stephen Jones and Ward 3 Councilman Rusty Greene, both of whom sit on a stakeholder committee for the amphitheater, agreed $300,000 likely isn\u2019t enough to cover operational costs for the first year, like marketing the venue or booking artists, but both said it\u2019s a start.\n\u201cThere\u2019s so much more stuff that has to be done just in preparation of getting everything to that point,\u201d Jones said.\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tStephen Jones\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\nSpears questioned the reasoning for the initial $300,000 placeholder, suggesting a more defined allocation would cushion the city for any higher than expected costs that arise. For example, if the city budgets $600,000 for the venue expecting it will cost only half that, but it ends up closer to $475,000, the city has the funding in place to cover the extra $175,000 without going into \u201cpanic mode\u201d and moving money around, he said.\nThe board approved the increase to $500,000 unanimously, though Spears said that doesn\u2019t necessarily mean all the funds will be spent.\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tJason Spears\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s just to have it there so that the operational costs come up as we\u2019re trying to make sure that the promoters and all the people that are going to have to be a part of that effort (get paid),\u201d Spears told The Dispatch after the meeting. \u201cThose (funds) are there, and we\u2019re not having to take some other part of the budget.\u201d\nSpears said these moves would lower the city\u2019s fund balance to between $8.3 and $8.5 million by the end of next fiscal year.\nRaises and projects\nIn a three-hour executive session Thursday, the council also approved raises for some city employees, though Jones said the total amount required to fund those raises hasn\u2019t been nailed down just yet. The council will meet again at 9 a.m. Monday to finalize the budget.\nJones said some raises target specific positions with the goal of \u201cbringing them up to where they should be.\u201d All other employees \u201cbut a few,\u201d he said, will receive 3% raises.\n\u201cI\u2019m not totally happy but I respect the process,\u201d Jones wrote in a text to The Dispatch regarding the final decisions made on raises.\nSpears on Thursday also tried to secure $125,000 to address drainage issues in Ward 6. That funding would have been held in the department the council created in July to hold funding for ward-specific projects.\nWith little support from the board, Spears withdrew the motion and told The Dispatch after the meeting the department will not be funded in FY 2027.\n\u201cAt this point, we\u2019re still building it out, so we can see how this year \u2026 we do on the project side, so we get a better idea of what we might need in the future,\u201d he said.\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\tMcRae is a general assignment and education reporter for The Dispatch.\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n      \n      \n        Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 37 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.\n      \n    \n\n\t\t\t\n      \n      \n        Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 37 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community."
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