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Peachtree City staff outline FY25 budget pressures: wages, technology and public-safety funding gaps
Summary
At the city’s FY25 budget workshop staff highlighted national and local inflation trends, rising personnel costs after a 7% COLA and a recent pay plan, projected public-safety expenses outpacing property-tax revenue under rollback scenarios, and several capital and service priorities tied to the city’s strategic pillars.
City staff opened the first FY25 budget workshop with a long presentation detailing national and local market trends, stress points for the coming year and items staff will likely include in the proposed budget.
Staff framed the discussion around a city vision of 'Uncompromised Excellence' and five strategic pillars (safe family-friendly community; active healthy community; attractive community; thriving resilient business community; and a city organization that is innovative, high performing and sustainable). Using national Consumer Price Index and wage data, staff said inflation had moderated (citing 3.4 percent as a recent rate) but noted compounding increases since COVID had raised costs by roughly 22 percent for some goods and services.
A central theme was personnel: staff said wages rose roughly 23 percent since 2019–2020, that the city implemented a 7 percent cost-of-living adjustment and a broad pay plan last year to fill vacancies, and that personnel now comprise roughly 73 percent of spending in recent actuals. Staff presented the FY25 operating picture with personnel and public-safety costs highlighted: property-tax (ad valorem) revenue was estimated around $25 million under stable millage assumptions, while public-safety expenses were projected near $28.5 million, creating an illustrative gap of about $3 million. Staff showed hypothetical millage reductions and their fiscal impacts (0.044 mil, 0.1 mil and a full rollback scenario) and emphasized staff is not recommending a millage increase.
The presentation also addressed rising technology and cybersecurity costs (a cited 26.5 percent increase in IT costs), investments in public-safety vehicles and equipment, ADA and path maintenance, playground and recreational projects such as Field of Hope and Riley Track improvements, signage and gateway landscaping, and new initiatives including a Path/Parking navigation app and an intern program. Staff outlined next dates: a more detailed budget presentation in two weeks, a public hearing at the July meeting, and possible adoption in August.
Council and staff discussed term lengths and competitive appointment for a proposed Transportation Advisory Group, the relative share of property-tax bills that go to the Board of Education, and the city's fiscal constraints for funding ongoing versus one-time items. Staff clarified that any new ongoing item included in the budget would need an identified ongoing revenue source to meet the city's balanced-budget policy.
Outcome: council received the workshop presentation and staff will return with a detailed proposed FY25 budget at the next scheduled presentation; council gave staff direction on application/term ideas for advisory groups and asked staff to include timing and cost impacts in forthcoming budget documents.
