Gainesville City Manager Brian Lackey - who has been on the job for about six months now - presented his first budget to city council members at a work session Thursday afternoon, and it's a spending plan with no tax increase.
Lackey said revenues are strong, so the $33.5 million general budget represents an increase of 4.1% over last year's operating budget.
Even with the proposed increase, Lackey said he foresees no need for a tax increase and no need to increase water and sewer fees for the coming year.
"In other good news, our budgeted fund balance is up to $4.1 million - it was $2.3 million last year," said Lackey.
Lackey said strong revenues continue to come into the city and he said city departments are closely watching their costs, so that's made a big difference in the fund balance. He also said it didn't hurt that there was no major winter weather event this past year.
"The last one [winter storm] we had with all the ice was very significant that cut into our budget, but when Mother Nature's nice to us, that really helps our budget," said Lackey.
Lackey also pointed out the strong rebound in housing and other construction in the city, saying the numbers had re-bounded from pre-recession figures.
With the positive news on the revenue side, Lackey is recommending $14 million in capital improvements for FY 2017, double the amount from last year. He indicated $4.1 million dollars of that amount would come from the general fund balance.
Among the items on the list: streetscaping and beautification for Bradford and Washington Streets, technology system upgrades, equipment replacement - including a new fire truck, asphalt preservation and start up monies for a land bank.
Lackey tempered all of the positive news in the spending plan with some words of caution.
"Because we had a strong FY16, FY17 is going to be a good year for our capital program. I will tell you this is not sustainable. I don't anticipate telling you we'll have a $14 million capital campaign next year," said Lackey. "This is going to be one good year because we had a very strong fiscal year '16."
Public hearings on the budget are scheduled for June 7 and June 21.
An outline of the proposed budget is posted on the City of Gainesville website.
