Granite Shoals adopts $14.6M budget, slight tax increase
The Granite Shoals City Council approved a $14.6 million budget for the 2025-26 fiscal year, which starts Oct. 1, and a slightly higher property tax rate than last year’s during its Sept. 9 meeting.
The upcoming budget is a 6 percent increase from last year’s $13.7 million.
Of the $14.6 million, $12.5 million will fund daily operations and $2.1 million is dedicated to capital projects in streets, utilities, parks, planning and development, and public safety.
The city’s general fund increased by 2.2 percent to $7.1 million. The primary source of revenue is expected to come from property taxes, with only about $680,000 projected for sales-tax revenue.
The general fund supports the day-to-day operations of the city and is divvied up as follows:
- 23 percent to police service
- 21 percent to debt service
- 19 percent to fire service
- 11 percent to administration
- 10 percent to streets department
- 7 percent toward non-departmental
- 4 percent to parks and recreation
- 4 percent to Planned Development District service
- 1 percent to municipal court
Employee support is a key focus, including a 2-percent cost-of-living adjustment, up to 2-percent merit raises, and, for the first time, a 20-percent city contribution toward dependent health coverage.
Granite Shoals has struggled with employee benefits and retention for years. City leaders hope the new contributions and raises can help remedy the longstanding issue.
“This investment not only supports the well-being of our team and their families, but also strengthens recruitment and retention, ensuring Granite Shoals remains a place where talented, dedicated professionals want to work and build their careers,” reads an excerpt from the adopted budget.
Other key elements in the 2025-26 budget are funding water line replacements and annual road maintenance while maintaining an aggressive capital improvement plan that focuses on infrastructure, parks and public spaces, growth and development, and community standards. The budget also plans for enhancements to public services and events and sees the addition of two full-time positions in the streets department.
“Our (fiscal year 2025-26) budget takes a balanced approach—strengthening infrastructure, supporting growth, and enhancing community standards while keeping the tax rate nearly flat and investing in the employees who make our services possible,” City Manager Sarah Novo told DailyTrib.com.
2025-26 TAX RATE
The property tax rate will remain nearly flat at $0.5424 per $100 valuation, up 1.12 percent from last year’s rate of $0.5417. The city will raise $295,999 more in property tax revenue than last year with the rate change and general increases to property evaluations, a 5.15 increase from last year’s budget.