New Bern aldermen get proposed 2025 budget from city

NEW BERN, N.C. (WNCT) — New Bern City Manager Foster Hughes presented the proposed budget for 2025 to the Board of Aldermen on Wednesday.

This year, city officials said they started the budgeting process last November. The total general fund is more than $50 million in the proposed budget, which is a 2.7 percent increase from the 2024 budget. As part of balancing the budget, the proposal suggests a 3 percent tax increase, which would generate around $1.4 million in additional revenue for the city.

For enterprise funds, there are more than $95 million at play, split between water, electric, sewer and solid waste. Rounding it out, the budget has about $9.5 in other funds like things for the municipal service district, E911, metropolitan planning organization and more.

“We will go into more detail on the budget by going department by department, so save your questions until that time. I know you’re going to have quite a few,” Hughes said to the aldermen at Wednesday’s meeting.

Going forward, the board will have two budget workshops as well as a public hearing before the budget is approved. In the presentation, Hughes said June 11 is the goal date for budget adoption.

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