Sandy Springs proposed a $116.3 million budget for fiscal year 2020 at a May 21 special called meeting.

The budget will take effect July 1. The City Council will host public hearings on the budget at its meetings June 4 and 18. The budget is expected to be approved at the June 18 meeting, and will be by June 25 at the latest.

The budget projects revenues of about $98.4 million, with money from a reserve fund balancing the expenditures. About $20.7 million would be left in the reserve fund, City Manager John McDonough said at the meeting.

The revenue projection is about 2.5 percent higher than fiscal year 2019, mostly from expected increases to property tax revenue.

The budget for fiscal year 2019 was $110.4 million.

A few highlights from the proposed budget:

  • A 4% police pay increase for recruitment and retention. The fire department would get 5%. The police department’s budget would rise from $22.9 million in fiscal year 2019 to $23.8 million. The fire department’s would rise from $15 million to $15.6 million.
  • Several of the city department’s budgets are decreasing due to savings by hiring the employees in-house rather than through outsourced contracts as was famously done since the city’s founding. Some of those savings are being used to fund the public safety pay increases, McDonough said.
  • $4 million to go towards replacing Fire Station 2, which is located on Johnson Ferry Road.
  • $2.5 million to fund the design and partial construction of the Cultural Center, a proposed building that would hold various local groups.
  • $1.5 million for the “North End Revitalization,” which was the subject of a city-created task force last year. The report from that task force is controversial.
  • $750,000 for city trail construction.
  • $2.7 million in a subsidy for the Performing Arts Center at City Springs. McDonough said in an earlier budget meeting that the city “will work on getting that down” over the next year.
  • $700,000 to add pre-emption devices to traffic signals, which allow emergency vehicles to get through intersections quicker.

To view the budget presentation, click here.