lettertotheeditor
Farragut ‘in a very sound financial condition’
With the annual Board of Mayor and Aldermen budget retreat behind us, the Town of Farragut moves into budget season. The goal is to approve our fiscal year 2022-23 budget by the end of May.
For fiscal year 2022-23, revenue is projected to be approximately $13 million. So far, our annual operating budget is projected to be about $8.5 million. This projected number will be updated as program changes, community grants, employee health insurance benefits etc. are updated. Any surplus between revenues and expenditures is placed in the general fund. Currently, we retain more than twice our annual operating budget in General Fund balance.
The Town has no debt. We’ve taken on debt four times in our 42-year history: to purchase land for Anchor Park and Mayor Bob Leonard Park, to build our Town Hall in the 1991 timeframe and to purchase the Campbell Station Inn in 2014 (in a 3-year installment plan paid off in 2017).
Transfers from the General Fund are made to the Capital Improvement Program as needed to fund capital improvement projects.
We pay as we go. The assets we manage and maintain include 140 acres of parks, 80 miles of sidewalks, approximately 25 miles of greenway trails, 140 miles of road, stormwater infrastructure and approximately $30 million in insured assets.
We continue to work towards bringing our buildings, parks and pedestrian assets into ADA compliance as mandated by the Federal Government. We continue to coordinate infrastructure improvements with new development when needed, extend our greenway trail/sidewalk system, pave our roads in a timely manner to avoid more expensive repairs and shore up our stormwater infrastructure.
In short, our Town is in a very sound financial condition because we budget in a very fiscally conservative manner and plan for the care and maintenance of our assets.
Farragut Vice Mayor Louise Povlin
