Committee recommends Budget Amendment No. 4 to board after line-item adjustments and bond-proceeds correction

The Budget and Finance Advisory Committee voted to recommend that the governing board adopt Budget Amendment No. 4, a housekeeping amendment that reallocates line items to comply with TCA code requirements and corrects revenue estimates tied to bond proceeds that were not realized.

Miss Holden explained the amendment is primarily a line-by-line review to ensure no appropriation prohibits spending under state law. "You cannot prohibit spending in any appropriation," she said, describing adjustments to salaries, wages, FICA and other line items and transfers between lines to reflect actual hiring and expenditures. She also said the amendment removes an expected $20,000,000 in water-sewer bond proceeds that were never borrowed and adjusts the budget to match bond proceeds the city did receive.

Committee members discussed public availability of the amendment documents and a memo noting a roughly $26,900,000 impact, which Holden said primarily reflected bond proceeds that were projected but not borrowed. When asked whether that was an actual reduction to fund balance if the borrowing had not occurred, Holden confirmed the memo reflected projections and the amendment reconciles budgets to actual activity.

Alderman Fuqua moved to recommend the amendment to the board; a second was recorded as "Veil." The committee recorded two votes in favor and no votes opposed, and the item was recommended to the board.

The recommended amendment is intended to align budgets with actual revenues and expenditures and to ensure compliance with state appropriation rules; it will next appear on the board agenda for formal adoption.