Canton Hears From Residents on Proposed 2025 Budget and Fees

The Canton City Council heard from residents Aug. 1 on the proposed $83.4 million budget for fiscal year 2025.

The proposed budget is a little over $1.1 million more than the current year’s budget.

The two largest funds in the proposed budget are the general fund and the water and sewer fund. The general fund is $27.8 million, about $2.2 million up from this year’s budget. The water and sewer fund budget is just under $41 million, down about $2.3 million from this year.

The proposed budget allocates a little over $8 million for the Canton Police Department, up 937,966 from the previous year. A little over $7 million is allocated for payments to Cherokee County for fire services, up $425,100 from FY24.

The budget would use about $2.4 million in fund balance, or reserves.

Canton’s fiscal year runs from Oct. 1 through Sept. 30.

Two city residents, Thomas Weaver and Chris Everett, spoke during the Aug. 1 public hearing.

“The fund balance is not decreasing, it’s growing, so where are you using it?” Everett asked the council. “In the transmittal memo for the budget, I see this line that says, ‘Growth comes at a cost.’ Well if it’s costing me, the taxpayer, money to grow, stop growing.”

He asked the city to make information available online about its use of funds and fund balances.

Weaver asked city officials to take more time to review the budget and give another opportunity for public input in light of state laws regarding regulatory fees on federal firearms licensees and municipal court fines.

“It would be my hope that you could allow for a second public comment and input period, specifically a public hearing for this later this month, because these are just too big decisions to be made just in one bite,” he said.

Canton Mayor Bill Grant said that he and the city council will review the budget over the next couple of weeks.

“The budget is published online for the public to read. We are very transparent about our budget and how we are spending taxpayer money and other revenue sources,” Grant said.

According to Canton City Manager Billy Peppers’ budget report, general fund revenues include increased revenue collections of property tax ($629,000), motor vehicle taxes on new vehicle sales ($208,000), franchise fees for utilities ($118,675), occupational taxes, or business licenses ($136,200), insurance premium taxes ($417,200), sold assets ($100,000) and use of fund balance ($2,403,744).

The proposed budget also shows a $1.1 million decrease in American Rescue Plan funds due to money being cleared in the 2024 fiscal year. A remaining $19,995 in ARPA funds will be available in fiscal year 2025.

The city operates with 139 full-time employees; 127 of these positions are filled. Of these, 10 are paid for fully through enterprise funds (seven in the water and sewer fund and three in the sanitation fund), according to Peppers’ report.

The average hourly rate of pay for non-exempt full-time employees is $26.32 per hour.

The average annual pay for hourly sworn police positions (work 2,236 hours annually) is $70,135 and civilian hourly employees (work 2,080 hours annually) earn an average of $60,006.

The proposed budget recommends increasing total salary and wages by about $850,000, per the report. This includes the creation of three new positions as well as implementing a compensation study that was approved in November.

The three new positions are a full-time administrative assistant for city hall, a fire and ADA inspector and a building and code compliance technician.

The proposed budget also includes up to a 10% increase in employer contributions for employee health benefits, a 3%increase in workers’ compensation insurance, a 7% increase in all other insurance and an 18% increase in retirement expenses.

The proposed budget shows about $8 million in Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax revenues: about $2 million remaining from SPLOST VII and about $6 million projected for the year from SPLOST VIII.

City projects and initiatives identified in the budget include:

♦ Continuing construction of the Water Pollution Control Plant expansion

♦ intersection improvements and addition of a signal light at Reservoir Road and Reinhardt College Parkway

♦ Highway SR 140 road design projects in north Canton

♦ Design and construction of the West Main Pedestrian Corridor project

♦ Continuing implementation of Transportation Master Plan projects

♦ Continuation of a Parks and Recreation Master Plan

♦ De♦ sign and replacement of the Etowah River Park canoe launch

♦ Groundbreaking at the South Canton Park project

♦ Street resurfacing projects

♦ Stormwater upgrades throughout the city and at Etowah River Park

♦ Improvements to the city’s water treatment plant

♦ Design of the new Etowah River pedestrian bridge

♦ Design of a replacement south Canton water tank

♦ Replacement of the Brown Industrial Park water line and booster pump station

♦ Design and construction of water line improvements at Highway 20 and Interstate 575

♦ Lighting and sound enhancements to the Canton Theatre

♦ Citywide security cameras

The council members are also considering adopting a new fee schedule for the upcoming fiscal year, including a 2.5% increase to water and sewer rates.

The city estimates that a family of four using an average of 3,000 gallons of water a month will see their water and sewer bill increase by $1.33 monthly, or $15.96 a year.

The proposed residential base water rate, for up to 2,000 gallons of water use, is $14.74, up 36 cents from the current rate.

Additional proposed water rates are:

♦ for 2,000-10,000 gallons: $7.22 per 1,000 gallons

♦ for 10,000-15,000 gallons: $8.66 per 1,000 gallons

♦ for 15,000 gallons and above: $19.16 per 1,000 gallons

For sewer, the proposed residential base rate for up to 2,000 gallons is $21.63 per 1,000 gallons, up 53 cents. For 2,000 gallons or more, the proposed rate is $10.65 per 1,000 gallons, up 26 cents.

If the fee schedule is approved, the changes would be effective Oct. 1.

For Canton’s full proposed 2025 budget and the full fee schedule, www.cantonga.gov/government/departments/finance/budget . Peppers’ full report can be found at tinyurl.com/3b79bt9t .

The city council is expected to vote on adopting the budget at 6 p.m. Aug. 15 at City Hall, 151 Elizabeth St. in downtown Canton.