The Walkersville Town Commission has approved a Fiscal Year 2025 budget of $7.4 million — down 14.5% from this year — while keeping its property tax and water rates the same as this year.
The town’s water fund was set at nearly $4.9 million for FY25, an increase of about 237% from this fiscal year.
This year’s water fund budget was adopted at $1.4 million, with actual revenues in the fund as of May 1 at a little over $1 million. The fiscal year ends on June 30.
Walkersville Town Manager Sean Williams said in an interview that the increase in the water fund is due to big projects the town must pursue, namely water main replacements in the Discovery neighborhood. Most of that money is being funded with American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) money. The proposed FY25 budget shows $3.1 million allotted.
The replacement is a long-term project, he said, and will likely cost around $9 million total.
The overall proposed town budget — which includes the general fund and capital projects — is a 14.5% decrease from this year’s adopted budget of $8.7 million.
The biggest reason for the decrease is less money from state Project Open Space grants and ARPA, as well as less money from the town’s surplus, Williams said.
The property tax rate remained at 14 cents per $100 of assessed value, though commissioners discussed the need to potentially raise it in future years.
The general fund for the coming year was set at $5.9 million, a 14.8% decrease from this year’s adopted $6.9 million.
The general fund was approved 3-2, with Burgess Chad Weddle breaking a tie.
Commissioners Gary Baker and Tom Gilbert voted yes. Commissioners Betsey Whitmore Brannen and Mary Ann Brodie-Ennis voted no.
Brodie-Ennis said she thought the town was taking too much money from its reserves without cutting in other areas.
This year’s fiscal year budget shows that as of May 1 that the town has taken in $3.4 million in revenue.
Williams said the difference between the adopted and actual FY24 revenues is due to money the town doesn’t receive until the end of the fiscal year. Additionally, some areas generated less revenue than what was expected, such as income tax, he said.
A third — about $2.3 million — of this year’s adopted general fund budget came from the town’s surplus. Williams said the town has withdrawn roughly $2 million of that surplus.
The surplus has slowly been going down due to this practice, but this year the town is proposing to only pull about $1.1 million from surplus to balance the budget.
But if this practice continues, Williams said, the town may need to look at alternative options for revenue.
“At some point, the only way that we’re gonna be able to cover those differences is raising taxes. We’re not there yet,” he said.
The commissioners unanimously approved the water fund.
Like with the property tax, commissioners have floated the idea of increasing water rates in order to continue balancing the water fund.
The capital budget for FY25 is $1.5 million, a 42.5% decrease from this year’s adopted capital budget of $2.6 million. As of May 1, the city has spent $3.7 million in capital projects, some of which were funded through the surplus.
The biggest project was road work at Maryland and Maple avenues, at a cost of $1.1 million.
FY25 is expected to have fewer capital projects, which is why the town allotted less money in the budget, Williams said.
Williams said said some costs in the budget proposal were unknown before it was approved.
For example, he said, the town only just recently discovered the cost to maintain the Maryland State Trooper program, in which municipalities pay for police coverage in their area.
In FY24, it cost roughly $1.6 million. In FY25, it is expected to cost $1.9 million, he said. With this increase, the town will need to budget to pull more money from surplus, he said.
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