Thursday, November 30, 2023–10:35 a.m.

-David Crowder, WRGA News-

Members of the City of Rome’s Finance Committee got their first look at the draft 2024 budgets Wednesday.

At the start of the meeting, Rome City Manager Sammy Rich took time to address recent comments that have been made regarding the budget process by at least one city commissioner.

“I’m not trying to take us down a side road, but I want you to know, as a finance committee, where I’m coming from,” Rich said. “Our city charter states that my top job is to bring a budget. That’s what this team does. I just hate the fact that it gets mischaracterized.”

Commissioner Craig McDaniel said Rich has his full confidence and added that the City of Rome operates under the Governmental Accounting Standards Board and is audited according to those standards.

“People who actually know how budgets work, don’t have a problem with the City of Rome and the way we manage our money,” he said. “The fact that we have clean audits every year is an indication that the money is managed well. Some of those attacks were personal. As a commissioner that’s one of nine, I wish I could apologize. It’s been an embarrassment to the city commission.”

As far as the draft 2024 budget is concerned, Finance Director Toni Rhinehart told the committee that the numbers are not quite final and further adjustments will likely be made.

“As those changes happen, we will continue to update the budget document,” she said. “I plan to send one out Friday when we make it public because it is required to be made available online for anyone to read. A hard copy has to be in the city manager’s office as well.”

According to Rhinehart, the general fund is basically like a jigsaw puzzle and it is usually the last piece to be completed because a lot of transactions come from other funds for things like retirement contributions.

“I have to make sure I have enough—what’s required, and try to have a little extra to make that contribution each year,” she said.

The city is planning for a $1.3 million increase in insurance costs in 2024 with the city contribution going from $10,500 per employee to $12,600 per employee. Employees will also see a premium increase for the first time in around three years.

“We had a very tough insurance year,” said Rome City Manager Sammy Rich. “Some years we get lucky and have affordable results. We do all that we can do to promote wellness like the employee clinic. We’ve got everything in the world to try and keep our costs down. Sometimes you just have unlucky years.”

The budget includes eight new positions in the water and sewer department as Rome prepares to construct a new ‘reverse osmosis’ filtration plant.

“They’ve got to be trained to run both plants basically,” Rhinehart told the committee. “That takes some time to get all those folks certified in the areas they need to be.”

Positions in the street department have also been tentatively added to the budget along with a horticultural position to help with beautification efforts.

On the revenue side, the recently negotiated split between the city and county regarding local sales taxes has been a help in 2023—a difference of over $500,000 through October and Rhinehart is projecting about $10 million in local option sales taxes for the next year.

“With all the angst we’ve had with the county over the years, I think we owe them kudos on the new distribution,” said Commissioner Jamie Doss, who serves on the Finance Committee. “They should get credit for that.”

Part of those LOST negotiations included the city assuming operation of the Forum, which is also included in the budget.

The water and sewer fund is projected to see lower operating revenues due to a rollback to where water and sewer rates were in December of 2018 following settlements in a lawsuit against carpet manufacturers, chemical companies, and others regarding Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, known as PFAS, in the Oostanaula River. According to Rhinehart, $154 million in settlement money is in hand for the new filtration plant. It’s also earning interest.

“We anticipate about a $6 million interest income on that money,” she said. “That is about what we’re losing, so it’s almost a break-even situation with the rate reduction and the revenues.”