City Manager's Budget Message

May 23, 2023

Dear Mayor, Members of City Council and City of Beaufort Stakeholders:

It is my distinct honor and pleasure to deliver to you the recommended City of Beaufort Fiscal Year 2024 Consolidated Budget. The budget total is $57,663,588 and directly funds initiatives that have been identified in each of the City’s five Key Focus Areas of providing a Safe and Vibrant City; Managing Growth and Protecting Natural Resources; Economic Development and Innovation; Fiscal Sustainability; and Organizational Excellence. Moreover, it does so while maintaining General Fund expenditures at the same level as Fiscal Year 2023 and introduces no additional tax burden to residents and business owners.

As a result of the quadrennial reassessment, our anticipated value of a mill is $128,731, with a municipal mill rate of 73.9. This results in a mill rollback of 4.3 mills from Fiscal Year 2023’s mill rate of 78.2. Though the City does have capacity to increase millage, this budget is reflective of responsible programming and planning by City Staff and does not dictate the need to do so.

This budget differs from years past in that it is truly a consolidated budget encompassing a complete accounting of all funds for which the City anticipates spending in Fiscal Year 2024. In prior years, most capital project expenditures were not accounted for in the annual consolidated budget, but rather were tracked separately through a series of individual project budgets. This year we are introducing an additional fund to our consolidated budget portfolio, the Capital Projects Fund. This will accomplish three very important things:

1) It provides a comprehensive picture of our Fiscal Year 2024 Budget.

2) it provides an additional degree of transparency regarding the City’s use of funds for expensive capital construction costs; and

3) it introduces another layer of accountability to ensure that City Council and City Staff are committing resources to priorities and initiatives that have been identified through the strategic planning process.

Other highlights of this budget include:

• Significant, continued investment in the City’s talented workforce with cost-of-living (COLA) pay adjustment for employees of 5% across the board, with an additional up to 2% merit increase. This will help us remain competitive as an employer of choice in the labor market and will aid in the retention of our talented employees.

• Addition of a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) capability. Through the addition of a full-time equivalent (FTE) position devoted to Information Technology and GIS and the procurement of specialized permitting software, we will be able to keep our maps current and introduce user-friendly online mapping software. The combination of the GIS position and new mapping capability will allow us to greatly improve our transparency regarding status of applications for permits, capital projects, infrastructure networks and much more.

• Three School Resource Officers (SROs) will be added, two of which are funded by the South Carolina Department of Public Safety. The addition of these SROs will ensure that we have an SRO in every one of our public schools in the City; Beaufort Elementary, Mossy Oaks Elementary, Beaufort Middle School, Lady’s Island Middle School, and two SROs at Beaufort High School.

• Semi-annual City newsletter that will be mailed to all residents to keep them informed and engaged. The newsletter will have both standard contact information on who to contact and how they can be reached for various concerns and transactions as well as containing topical news on projects and other happenings in the City. It will be a wealth of useful information delivered to the mailboxes of our residents.

• New software capability for electronic submittal and review of site plans, construction plans and other planning documents. This BLUEBEAM software system is becoming a standard in the urban planning community and provides a more efficient means of sharing information between City Community Development staff and permit applicants.

• Funding for strategic partners of the City to include, but not limited to the Beaufort Digital Corridor, the Military Enhancement Committee, South Coast Cyber Center, the Beaufort County Economic Development Corporation, and the Beaufort-Port Royal Convention and Visitors Bureau.

• Set aside $15,000 in Parks & Tourism Fund and $100,000 in State Accommodations Tax Fund to support the Downtown Twilight Hours initiative. The objective of this initiative is to develop and execute a program which will stimulate evening commerce in the Historic District through a probable combination of business-owner incentives and special programming.

Though the size of the Fiscal Year 2024 Consolidated Budget is significantly higher than the Fiscal Year 2023 Consolidated Budget due to the addition of the Capital Projects Fund, General Fund expenditures remain relatively flat. The Fiscal Year 2023 Amended Budget General Fund is $23,454,433 while the Fiscal year 2024 recommended amount is $23,658,750.

Of note are several changes to the Fee Schedule for Fiscal Year 2024. The Residential Solid Waste Fee will increase from $20 per month to $22.50 per month and will be billed annually at the rate of $270 as part of the annual real property tax bill. The rate increase is necessary due to a consumer price index escalator clause in our contract with Capital Waste Services. Rates for off-duty police personnel are increased from $50 per hour to $60 per hour, which remains a comparable rate with other local public law enforcement providers. In our Community Development Department, we are implementing plan review fees to remain revenue neutral when outsourcing review of plans by architects and professional engineers. We are also adding park rental fees for the newly opened Whitehall Park.

Our new fund in the Fiscal Year 2024 Consolidated Budget is the Capital Projects Fund. The intent of this fund is to establish clear commitment to capital projects that City Council has deemed to be priorities consistent with objectives in support of the City’s Strategic Plan. The expected expenditures in this fund total $27,197,627 which are comprised of revenues from federal and state grants; transfers in from the balance of various funds previously committed to capital projects, to include ARPA funds and stormwater bond funds; contributions from project partners; Parks & Tourism funds; and Parks & Tourism revenue bonds which we will seek in Fiscal Year 2024. These Parks & Tourism Revenue bonds will allow us to complete significant construction projects at Washington Street Park and Southside Park.

I am confident you will find that the details of this budget support the accomplishments of objectives supporting our key focus areas to the greatest degree possible. I am also confident that this budget demonstrates great stewardship of public dollars while being responsive to our community’s needs.

This budget was assembled through the very hard work of our Deputy City Manager, department directors and members of our Finance Department who were patiently working with a new City Manager.

We stand ready to address any questions or concerns regarding the City of Beaufort Fiscal Year 2024

Consolidated Budget, as recommended by Staff.

In service,

Scott M. Marshall

City Manager