Waynesville adopts FY 2025–26 budget, corrects off-duty police fee and adds $19,000 police IT item

The Town of Waynesville board held a public hearing and adopted its FY 2025–26 budget, approving several changes before adoption: correction of the off-duty police officer fee, addition of $19,000 for police investigative software, and adoption of an updated five-year capital improvements plan.

Why it matters: The adopted budget sets operating and capital priorities across the town’s general, water, sewer, electric and stormwater funds and includes a mix of revenue projections, a modest use of fund balance, and a set of capital requests the town says will address deferred maintenance.

The finance presentation outlined revenues and expenditures across funds. The general fund revenue projections included $8,832,600 in ad valorem taxes, about $4,806,960 in unrestricted intergovernmental revenue (including beer and wine taxes, court facility fees and franchise taxes), $841,500 in restricted intergovernmental revenue, and other revenue lines. All-funds total budget was presented as approximately $38,947,000.

Expenditures and capital: The finance director noted personnel and fringe for the general fund at approximately $15.2 million and listed capital requests including a $250,000 roof for the Public Works building, $20,000 and $50,000 cemetery line items (to implement a cemetery master plan, funded from the perpetual trust as clarified during the meeting), $100,000 for a high-track excavator for water maintenance, $100,000 for a primary clarifier rehabilitation at the sewer plant, and $200,000 for an electric maintenance machine. The board also approved consolidating special event funding into a single line item.

Fee correction and additions: Council discussion flagged a user-fee inconsistency: the off-duty police officer fee was listed as $25 in the draft but the actual charge is $65. The board approved correcting that fee. Councilmember Anthony proposed adding $19,000 to the police budget for investigative software (described by council as an investigative tool/subscription/lease that would appear in the capital budget as a capital lease); the board approved adding the item and specified it would be funded from fund balance.

Sales tax conservatism: Councilmembers debated the sales tax projection. Staff used a conservative 1% increase projection for sales tax; council members discussed historical under-budgeting and the possibility of revisiting allocations later in the year if collections outperform projections. The board asked staff to report budgeted versus actual sales tax for FY 2024 and FY 2025 to inform future decisions.

Votes and follow-up: After public hearing procedures, the board voted to accept the budget presentation for information, close the public hearing, and ultimately adopt the budget as presented with the three changes (correct off-duty fee, add $19,000 police IT item, fund the $19,000 from fund balance). The board also adopted an updated five-year capital improvements plan that incorporates the budget changes; the capital plan was described as a planning document to support grant applications.

Next steps: Staff will implement the fee correction, add the $19,000 capital line for police investigative software to the capital budget, record the fund-balance appropriation, and provide the requested sales tax budget-to-actual comparisons for prior years. Staff said they will return with ordinance-level actions if required by policy.