Wilmington's Operating And Water/Sewer Budgets For The July 1st Start Of Fiscal Year 2023 Receive Council Approval

Wilmington DE

23 May, 2022

5:52 AM

Description

Press release from the City of Wilmington: May 19, 2022 A $176.9 million operating budget for Fiscal Year 2023 and an $82.1 million water and sewer budget were approved tonight by Wilmington City Council. Mayor Mike Purzycki held budget growth to a minimum when he proposed the new budgets in March amid growing concerns about projected annual budget deficits. To stress just how dire the current and future revenue outlook is, the City's first COVID-era operating budget required an injection of $14 million from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) in order to balance it as required by City law. "While I appreciate that Council was willing to increase revenues by raising the tax rate, the approved tax increase was less than what I asked for and will be inadequate as we face stiff budgetary headwinds in the foreseeable future. " said Mayor Purzycki. "My arguments for a higher tax increase will be vindicated in upcoming budgets when we confront the reality of either having to drastically cut positions or find other revenue sources. In any event, I am grateful to the Members of Council who supported this compromise budget. Those who voted against it owe it to the public to have at least presented an alternative proposal." The Mayor went on to say, "These are very uncertain times fueled by the effects of a still troublesome pandemic and deepening local and national economic worries. The tough decisions that we, as elected officials, need to make to control spending and keep government services moving smoothly are not going to get any easier for the next few years. While we didn't do enough in this budget, we have at least bought ourselves some time to formulate the strategies necessary for a sound fiscal future." The new Fiscal Year 2023 Operating and Water and Sewer budget summaries can be viewed or downloaded here. Highlights include: a balanced budget that drew money from ARPA to cover projected COVID-related losses of $7.8 million from reduced wage tax, head tax, and parking enforcement revenues a property tax increase of 6%, the first in five years. The owner of a median assessed property will pay approximately an additional $41.76 annually, or $3.48 more per month, under the proposed new tax rate a water/sewer rate increase of 5%. This rate increase will result in an average $2.82 monthly increase for a City customer using 4,000 gallons of water per month and a $2.61 monthly increase for a county water customer using 4,000 gallons. The rate hike is needed to cover annual costs associated with operating a water utility that serves approximately 39,000 customers in Wilmington and parts of New Castle County a citywide net reduction in staffing of 15 positions, including four in the Mayor's Office; seven vacant positions in the Police Department, reducing the WPD authorized strength to 312; and three vacant positions in the Finance Department an appropriation of $700,000 to continue to clean more City streets as part of the Wilmington Clean Streets Program, which is part of Wilmington's Beautiful City Campaign the reorganization of the Department of Planning and Development, which will be renamed the Department of Land Use and Planning and will have transferred into it the processes and employees from the Department of Licenses & Inspections (L&I) related to permitting, plan reviews, and land development. The new alignment will ensure a more efficient review and timely response to land development requests. This press release was produced by the City of Wilmington. The views expressed here are the author's own.