Columbia City Council passes $563 million budget for 2025 fiscal year
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
After months of discussion, the Columbia City Council passed the 2025 fiscal year budget during Monday night’s meeting.
The new budget passed with a 5-2 vote, with the two “no” votes coming from Ward 2 Councilwoman Lisa Meyer and Ward 5 Councilman Donald Waterman
The council held a work session on July 29, citing infrastructure, housing social services and public safety as its biggest priorities. At the time proposed budget came in at a $21 million deficit. Three separate public hearings were also held on Aug. 5, Aug. 19 and Sept. 3 to seek feedback from the public.
The new amended budget includes adding $1 million to the police and fire pensions and more than $2 million for a partnership with the Missouri Department of Transportation to improve pedestrian safety on Interstate 70. City manager De'Carlon Seewood tells ABC 17 that the pension board asked for a study to help determine the pension number.
"Earlier on, there was a question about 'How do we speed up the process for funding our pension and so forth,'" Seewood said, "From that study, what they said was well, if we add an additional million dollars, which was $500,000 per fund that we can help speed up that process. That's where the number came from."
The original proposed budget for 2025 came in at a $21 million deficit. After amendments that deficit came out to be approximately $23 million. The city will be bringing in roughly $540 million compared to the $563 million it expects to spend.
Seewood said during the meeting that the city will need to be mindful of its revenue and expenses coming in, but added that the city isn't "going off a cliff" because of the the deficit. He added that future growth is a big reason for a lot of the city's expenses, which will require hiring more staff.
The budget includes funding the first year of the new Office of Housing and Neighborhood Services to help preserve existing affordable housing, incentivize new affordable housing, and expand rental and rental housing programs. There will also be continued funding for the DIVERT program, designed to integrate social services into public safety and take the burden off of law enforcement.
The budget also includes an additional $15 million for pay raises. The city argues that the pay increases will help them lead the market which in turn will help them attractive attract and retain talent. The city says some of those staff hires will be used for stricter parking enforcement.
More than half of the general fund will be allocated toward public safety, which the city says will be around $66 million., a 3% increase from last year. The total general fund, which is the largest part of the budget, will be approximately $136 million, with 27% of that coming from the sales tax.
Tax revenue is also expected to increase, total sales are projected to see a $4.5 million boost, which is 6.5% higher than last year. Meanwhile, general property tax revenue is projected to increase by $165,000 (1.5%), while local tax revenue is expected to increase by $2.1 million (12.4%).
Check back for updates.
