Final Adopted Budget FY23-24

General Fund Expenditure Highlights

Expenditures By Category The chart shows a comparison of General Fund expenditures by category for FY 21-22 actual expenditures, the FY 22-23 amended budget, and the FY 23-24 recommended and FY 24-25 projected budgets.

General Fund Expenditures by Expenditure Category Actual Budget

Adopted 2023-24

Projected

2021-22

2022-23

2024-25

$ 198,493,277 $ 218,148,512 $ 240,756,642 $ 251,317,661

Personnel Costs

162,878,162

Maintenance & Operations

152,799,486

164,881,010

130,373,315

207,267 - Total Expenditures $ 329,073,859 $ 372,549,114 $ 403,879,804 $ 416,198,671 1,601,116 245,000

Capital Outlay

The FY 23-24 General Fund budget includes personnel costs of $240.8 million, $22.6 million, or 10.4%%, higher than the current revised budget. Personnel costs represent the largest proportion of General Fund expenditures, at almost 60% of overall expenses. The General Fund includes an increase of 25.5 full-time equivalent (FTE) positions. There is also the elimination of 30 FTEs to support compensation increases. The General Fund has a net increase of 14.5 FTEs. A total of 12.5 FTEs were added as part of mid-year position requests and reorganizations. An additional 13 FTEs are included for various service enhancements. Several position changes are included for a variety of General Fund Departments detailed in the Position Summary section of the document. In order to help support increased compensation for Police officers, 30 currently unfilled patrol positions are eliminated. Additionally, Police is reorganizing to more effectively support demands for service while addressing the challenges of vacancies within the department. A total of 10 sworn positions will be converted to professional positions to assist with this effort. The budget includes a 16.2% market-based increase for Police. A 4% market-based increase is included for Fire. Starting pay will increase to $47,812 for Firefighters and $55,000 for Police Officers. The budget also includes 4% average merits and 4% general steps for all other eligible employees. The minimum wage for benefitted employees increases from $15.91 to $18.00 per hour. This is an increase of over $4,300, or 13.1%, annually for general employee minimums. Maintenance and Operations (M&O) expenditures, including transfers to other funds and debt service, are budgeted at $162.9 million, roughly $10.1 million, or 6.6%, higher than the current year amended budget. M &O expenses represent approximately 40% of the General Fund budget. Increased service and contract costs for priority areas such as solid waste, security, fire, and others is included at more than $3.6 million. M&O for various programming and equipment costs total approximately $200,000 for related service enhancements. Approximately $600,000 is included for office renovations and relocations to accommodate organization-wide realignments. Approximately, $1.1 million is included to continue implementation of the Police Take-home Vehicle program. Transfers to the Debt Service fund increase approximately $1.25 million due to debt service needs. The transfer to the Guilford Metro Communications Fund increases $1.4 million to support technology expenses and other service costs no longer covered by the State 911 Board annual disbursement. The General Fund contribution to several funds will continue at current year levels: the Coliseum $3,400,000, the Solid Waste Management Fund at $1,930,537, Parking Fund at $3,975,349 and Capital Leasing Fund at $1.5 million. Capital outlay, expenses for equipment and vehicles and other assets over $5,000 which have a useful life of more than one year, decreases by approximately $1.3 million. This decrease is due to the categorization of police vehicle expenses as M&O expenses. Approximately $245,000 of this is directly related to vehicles and equipment needed for additional employees. The FY 24-25 projected budget of $416,198,671 is $12.3 million, or 3.1%, higher than the adopted FY 23-24 budget.

Adopted 2023-24 Budget

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