The City of Sydney council adopted the fiscal year 2025-26 budget at its Sept. 23 meeting following a public hearing and passage of Ordinance 18-82.
Finance Director Kegan Carwin said the adopted budget includes nearly $14 million in General Fund expenditures and total city revenues of about $33.5 million, but it also reflects a small projected shortfall that the city plans to cover from reserves.
Carwin said, “This budget presents forecasted expenditures that’ll exceed forecasted revenues,” and noted state economic-development sales-tax chargebacks are expected to reduce local option sales-tax receipts by about $400,000.
The budget includes funding or set-asides for several capital items: the Northside Park project (estimated at a little more than $1.5 million), an allocation of $1 million for potential industrial-park street work, continued work on the city’s electric undergrounding and generation projects, a wastewater plant upgrade, and a planned landfill expansion with new cells.
Carwin told the council the city budgeted $100,000 for a new chlorinator for the water department and listed an $11 million-plus program of street renovation work, including planned work on 11th, 12th, Hickory and King streets. He said the Safe Streets for All grant design is complete and the city has applied for $5.3 million for implementation; if awarded, roughly $2.5 million would appear in next year’s budget.
On revenues, Carwin said the General Fund is budgeted at $13,578,624 and non‑General Fund/enterprise revenues are about $17.8 million, with debt service around $2,048,533. He summarized those figures on the council’s revenue-and-expense slides and said, after projects and anticipated chargebacks, the overall net position shows a negative balance of about $46,566 that would be covered from reserves.
The council also discussed property-tax and levy figures included in the packet. Carwin said the levy will decrease to 0.475645 and that 0.339796 of that is appropriated for the General Fund; the packet shows $721,216.19 appropriated for bond indebtedness.
Councilors moved to waive three readings and passed Ordinance 18-82, the annual appropriation bill adopting the budget statement. Council members voting affirmative as recorded during roll calls included Vandegard, Radcliffe, Lee and Kirkman; the ordinance was adopted and will be published as required.
The council opened and closed the public hearing on the budget before taking final action; no substantive public testimony was recorded in the hearing segment.