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Sandy Springs presents budget with planned $50 million debt issuance for fire-station projects
Summary
City staff presented a proposed fiscal-year budget that increases revenues about 5% while planning a roughly $50 million debt issuance to finance two new fire stations and an addition, keeps a conservative reserve policy, and holds several capital and operating decisions for later council action.
Sandy Springs city staff presented the city’s formal recommended budget on May 27, saying revenues are projected to rise about 5% while general-fund expenditures are expected to rise roughly 2% over the current year.
The presentation, led by staff member Tony Mitton to the mayor and council, said the proposal includes a planned debt issuance of about $50,000,000 that would fund replacement of Fire Station 4 and Fire Station 1 and an addition to Station 3. Mitton said the city has built those borrowings into capital assumptions and that debt-service costs were offset in the proposed spending plan.
Why it matters: the planned debt issuance is the largest new borrowing in the proposed budget and would enable multi-year capital work on public-safety facilities that staff told council are priorities.
In addition to the fire-station borrowing, the proposed budget continues the city’s long-standing conservative fiscal practice: “We always overestimate our expenditures and underestimate our revenues,” Mitton told the council, and staff reiterated the council’s adopted financial policy to keep a 25% general-fund reserve. Mitton said the budget is balanced under those constraints.
Supporting details and other capital items: the capital improvement program in the proposal retains the addition to Station 3 and maintains funding assumptions for a five-year CIP. The budget book shows multiple funding sources for capital projects, including transfers from the general fund, grants, and potential debt issuance. Staff said the traffic-calming contribution was removed from this year’s capital line and that a separate policy review of the program will be returned to council.
Transportation and TSPLOST: staff said the next transportation referendum will be informed by a transportation master-plan update currently being rebid after earlier bids came in over budget. That master plan is scheduled to be complete in time to inform a T-SPLOST (transportation special-purpose local-option sales tax) referendum likely to appear on the November ballot next year, not this fall.
Other funds and projects called out in the presentation include impact-fee projects (Old Riverside Drive Park and Boylston Road among them), an impact-fee contribution toward a medical response unit for the fire department, and a capital-project line for the City Center and other public-facility authority (PFA) projects. Mitton noted that the city must account for PFA-related debt in an “all funds” total and that the PFA fund will span multiple years of expenditures.
Revenue and contingency: the presentation included a breakdown of general-fund revenue streams (taxes, licenses and permits) and noted a total projected increase of roughly $6,012,941 in general-fund revenues. Staff also described a general-admin contingency line (used historically for special consulting or unexpected costs) that has been used in prior years; council members asked for examples of prior uses.
Process and next steps: council will hold a first public hearing on the budget at next Tuesday’s meeting at 6 p.m., followed by a final public hearing and adoption scheduled for June 17. Staff said they will return with follow-up details on specific items (for example, additional schedule and funding detail for the master plan and the PFA amortization schedule) when asked by council.
