MARTINSBURG — Martinsburg City Council members came prepared to take action Tuesday evening for the fiscal year 2024-25 budget approval following a March 20 Council as a Whole meeting.
The FY 2024-25 budget proposal was presented to the mayor and city council on March 14 from City Manager Andy Blake and Finance Director Mark Spickler. In the introduction, staff indicated the proposed budgets were presented with the theme of “People, Infrastructure and Place.”
“People, infrastructure and place are three individual components that when combined, represent the complete portrait of what helps make the City of Martinsburg,” it stated. “The proposed budgets invest in people — consisting of our employees and our citizens; invest in infrastructure; and, make investments in creating and maintaining a sense of place.
“Martinsburg’s first priority is to provide quality, efficient and effective services. Providing quality services requires people. Continued investments in our people are necessary so that our people, our employees, can continue providing services to our residents, businesses and constituents. Effectively providing and delivering services require adequate and quality infrastructure, including necessary modest equipment and technology. And, finally, investments are necessary to create and maintain a sense of place for not only our residents, but our visitors.”
Staff presented a balanced FY 2024-25 General Fund Budget at $25.4 million and stated the main operating fund for the city was balanced without relying upon any unencumbered balance funds being brought forward. However, it was noted that $5.65 million was utilized from the sales tax fund to switch police and fire pension formula calculations.
The general fund was able to budget for the following: employee pay grade adjustments at a 2.5% cost-of-living adjustment (COLA); employee-fixed merit at 2.5%; potential 10% increase in health insurance rates; and fully funded all authorized positions and going-level operations. The council voted to approve the recommended General Fund Budget.
Also approved were the following budgets: Coal Severance Tax Fund budget, $100,000; Police Levy Fund budget, $1.74 million; Fire/EMS Fund budget, $1.1 million; State Tax Fund budget, $7.3 million; Water/Sewer Fund budget, $11 million; Sanitation Fund budget, $2.7 million; Parking Fund budget, $310,000; and Stormwater Fund budget, $1.72 million.
The council also approved expenditures identified by the police and fire departments, which are eligible to be expended by the Martinsburg Opioid Response, Recovery, Outreach and Wellness (MORROW) Fund memorandum of understanding (MOU).
The total of the expenditures is $791,250. This would leave a balance of $430,000 for council distribution to outside agencies and/or future eligible expenditures made available utilizing the first payment of opioid litigation settlement funds in the amount of $1,210,920.
The city has not yet received its 2024 official funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). According to the submitted documents, adjustments will be made once the funds are received. The estimated FY 2024 Community Development Block Grant through the program is $330,540, and the home program totaled $541,663.
The council also approved several FY 2023-24 budget revisions at Tuesday’s meeting. The revisions, suggested by Spickler, were presented to the council at the March 20 budget workshop. A revised budget was approved in the total amount of $31,194,953, which reflected adjustments in the amount of $3,173,458.
The Coal Severance Tax Fund budget revision did not adjust the revenue budget. A $60,000 budget adjustment was revised from the City Hall — Capital Outlays account, and $60,000 was added from The Arts Center line item.
The Police Level Fund budget revision was approved, with a large amount of adjustment to increase the revenue budget from $1.66 million to a total of $2,715,130. The Fire/EMS Fund’s revised budget for FY 2023-24 increased to $2,540,225 from $1,050,000.
The Water & Sewer Fund budget for FY 2023-24 also contained many adjustments. The revenue budget increased from $10.2 million to $10,827,005. Adjustments were made to balance the budget, with expenditures totaling $5,492,705 for the water department and $5,334,300 for the sewer department.
Increased revenues from the city’s Sales Tax Fund required a $440,000 adjustment to the budget for contingencies, bringing the budget to a total of $16,793,450.
Earned interest increased the revenue for the Sanitation Fund budget by $10,000. The revised budget for FY 2023-24 is now $4,495,240. Adjustments in the amount of $147,820 were made to the Parking Fund budget, increasing the budget from $295,000 to $442,820.
The final FY 2023-24 revision was made for the Stormwater Fund budget. Adjustments were made from the approved budget of $1,804,720 to revise the total to $1,969,720.
