Residents may voice their concerns on how the city’s proposed budget of $336 million now exceeds its projected income of just $322 million and will require $14 million from reserves by contacting their respective city council members.

COLUMBUS, Ga. — City council is planning to expand the city’s budget by roughly $14 million more than it plans to bring in through revenue for the upcoming 2024 fiscal year, which begins on July 1 of this year.

Prior to hearings held by city council throughout the month of May, the city had planned to bring in an estimated $322 million in revenue. With a budgetary need of $332 million, that number alone left a deficit of roughly $10 million that the city planned to pull from its reserves to fund the upcoming fiscal year.

Now, after adding additional funding for things like pickleball courts and video games — which by themselves will cost taxpayers $1.8 million from the city’s reserve funds — the total budget proposal from the city now sits at a staggeringly-high total of $336 million. 

That’s $14 million more than it projects to bring in.

For context: this is the same exact thing as a household planning to spend — on purpose —  nearly 5% more than its total household income. 

ORIGINAL BUDGET

Each year, the city manager’s office is responsible for preparing a diligent budget capable of responsibly managing the city’s revenue vs. its expenses. Traditionally, though not legally required, the mayor works closely with the city manager to prepare that budget — though it is the city manager’s sole responsibility to prepare and manage it; hence the name city manager. 

When the city’s original budget was presented to the Budget Review Committee by finance director Angelica Alexander on May 2 of this year, the city manager’s budget proposal projected the following deficit to already exist:

• Revenues: $322,297,849
• Expenditures: $332, 818,834
• Use of Fund Balance: $10,520,985

As shown above — from the very beginning — the city manager had purposefully planned to spend roughly $10.5 million more than what the city planned to bring in. Let’s say that again for crystal clear clarity: the city’s original budget plan — as prepared by city manager Isaiah Hugley, on purpose — was to pull $10.5 million from the city’s reserve funds so it could spend millions more than it planned to bring in. 

That increased budget set aside tens of millions of dollars for programs and special interest projects that have demonstrated very little positive return on investment as the city continues to spiral downward into a state of urban decay. 

While Hugley himself has continued to erroneously blame the ‘pandemic’ for the state of the city, the failure of his 18-year-long agenda can clearly be seen by putting a ruler to the side of the city’s constant decline for the past several decades.  

We’re not so sure that we’d consider that responsible management. 

Nonetheless, Hugley’s own proposed budget planned to spend $10.5 million more than what he himself projected the city to bring in throughout the upcoming year. 

ADD/DELETE LIST

On May 16, city council members voted for additional items to be added to the budget through what is known as the “add/delete list,” which is a mechanism through which city departments can request additional funds directly from city council. Through that process, city officials added another $1.5 million to the already-bloated budget to provide our city’s law enforcement, courts, and district attorney with the funds they need to fight the city’s outrageously-unmanageable rise in crime. 

Though these particular increases are well justified, the city manager’s inability to have prioritized them himself from the get-go through his own original budget proposal forced city councilors to have no other choice than to add them to the budget themselves. Since Hugley did not allocate them in his original budget, these crime-fighting funds were forced to be pulled from the city’s reserve fund. 

These additional crime-fighting funds brought the city’s budget to an even higher total of $334 million.

Despite his own incompetent budget proposal that guzzled $10.5 million from the city’s reserves, Hugley would go on to scold city council for approving funds for our city’s law enforcement, courts, and district attorney — all while his own projected budget failed to appropriate those funds to address the city’s rampant crime in the first place.

To be clear, and to really drive this point home: Instead of Hugley presenting a budget that limited spending in other places to prioritize the required funds needed to address the city’s crime, Hugley chose to blame city council after he himself forced them to allocate the funding from reserves. 

Ask yourself: Why did Hugley not prioritize these crime-fighting funds himself? Why did he then fight city council when they were forced to allocate these funds from the city’s reserves? Shouldn’t a city manager be diligent and competent enough to have already had them built into his own budget proposal instead of yelling at city council for having to do it themselves?

Mind you, the $1.5 million council was forced to add through the add/delete list was just a fraction of the $10.5 million deficit Hugley had originally presented to them. Hugley flipped out on council for doing the exact thing he just did: pull funds from the city’s reserves.

PICKLEBALL FOR ALL

After the city’s add/delete list process was already complete and finalized on May 16, city council decided to add millions more to the already-bloated budget. 

During the recent city council meeting on June 13, council members voted for and approved an additional $1.8 million to be added to the budget for — and we couldn’t make this up if we tried — pickleball courts and video game systems.

You read that correctly.

After already having an irresponsible budget plan that purposely intended to spend $12 million more than its revenue, a group of adults charged with the literal governance of a city sat around a table and said, “Let’s add about $1.8 million more for leisure activities on a faddish sport no one will care about in five years nor will we maintain as it crumbles away like the rest of the city.”

The city’s enormous budget now sits at a total of roughly $336 million, which is $14 million more than its projected revenue.

THE BOTTOM LINE

With precision, the Columbus Consolidated Government’s current FY2024 Budget Proposal is as follows:

• Revenues: $322,297,849
• Expenditures: $336,183,384
• General Fund Reserve Days: 69.05
• OLOST Reserve Days: 40.70
• Total Reserve Days: 109.75
• General Fund Reserve Usage: $9,176,580
• Total Reserve Usage: $13,885,336

Don’t forget that this is all occurring while the city just-so-happened to ‘find’ property reassessments that magically are projected to bring in $10 million more from your pockets. 

What a coincidence. 

We’re so glad the city’s track record of spending more of your money has lowered violent crime and improved the poverty rate for the past twenty years instead of spiraling the town into a perpetual state of runaway urban decay. 

Oh, wait…

You’re individually smart. You’re collectively stupid.

Perhaps that’s worth some very serious ponderance for the future of our city’s literal survival.

Residents may voice their concerns on how the city’s proposed budget of $336 million now exceeds its projected income of just $322 million and will require $14 million from reserves by contacting their respective city council members.

Facts are stubborn things — and we’ll keep publishing them, whether city officials like them or not.

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