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Garner opens FY27 budget portal and holds initial public hearing; council questions revenue math
Summary
Town staff launched the FY27 budget portal for public comment and held an initial hearing. Council praised earlier release but asked for clearer departmental exports and questioned a working‑revenue figure that staff later explained includes county fire revenue.
Garner officials launched an online FY27 budget portal and held an initial public hearing on March 17 to collect resident input as staff prepares the manager’s recommended budget for May. Budget Director Sarah Warren demonstrated the portal’s public comment form, calendar of important dates and a QR code residents can scan to submit feedback.
"We have opened up our online web portal to receive information and feedback from the community," Warren said, describing how portal comments will be shared with council before the May recommended budget. She told the council staff will continue gathering departmental requests and will provide portal comments at the March 31 work session and again ahead of the May public hearing on the recommended budget.
Councilmembers praised the early access. Councilmember Stallings said he appreciated getting budget materials early so the council can produce a better working product. Several council members requested the ability to export raw department‑level data for year‑to‑year comparisons; Warren said staff will work on providing data exports ahead of the March 31 work session and that the manager’s recommended budget (first May meeting) will include departmental funding decisions.
Councilmember Singleton challenged a figure on the portal’s working‑revenues pie chart, saying the visible numbers did not add up to the label of $90.6 million. Staff responded that the portal shows working/model numbers, that out‑year figures are taken from prior multi‑year models, and later in the meeting the manager verified the working revenue total as $90,600,000 while explaining that certain fire revenue from the county will be shown separately to reconcile the apparent discrepancy.
Two members of the public addressed the council during the hearing. Ricky Pierce urged greater town transparency and suggested adding council seats; Tim Holton described neighborhood safety concerns and asked the town to ‘‘deliver greatness’’ in maintaining a clean, safe community. The hearing was closed after staff confirmed there were no further comments.
Residents can use garnerforward.com or the budget portal’s comment form to submit budget feedback ahead of the May hearings.
