GREENFIELD — The Greenfield City Council gave final approval to its 2022 annual budget and salary ordinance at its meeting on Wednesday, Oct. 27. The budget totals $30.3 million and represents a return to form for the city after a year of cuts due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
It’s an increase over the city’s 2021 budget of $23.1 million, driven by an increase in tax revenue. The city’s overall tax rate increased from approximately 1.05% to about 1.14%. The city’s total property tax levy is expected to be $11,039,000.
The final budget saw no substantial changes since the initial version the council approved in August.
“I’m happy with how the process went,” Mayor Chuck Fewell said.
For the city’s 2021 budget, anticipating a decrease in tax revenue, Fewell asked departments to cut their budgets, and employees didn’t receive a raise.
This time around, the budget includes a $2,000 raise for all non-public safety city employees and a $8,000 raise for the mayor and clerk-treasurer. Local nonprofits that did not receive funds from the city in its 2021 budget saw those dollars restored for the upcoming year.
Council members said the raises represent the city’s prioritization of employee recruitment and retention. Greenfield did not lay off any of its employees during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The city made large investments in several departments in the 2022 budget, the largest in local infrastructure. After having to cut $200,000 from its budget in 2021 due to a decrease in tax revenue, the street department will be able to spend $700,000 on street improvements in the upcoming year, with tax dollars having largely rebounded. That’s an increase of $300,000 over 2021.
“We’re basically replacing funds that we lost during the pandemic, and I for one was shocked that the numbers allowed this, when (Clerk-Treasurer Lori Elmore) told me what we could raise these to,” street commissioner Tyler Rankins said of the budget in August.
The Greenfield Fire Territory will receive $500,000 toward equipment replacement in 2022, with several of its vehicles in line for replacement after a lifespan of more than 20 years.
The city’s general fund increased from $10.3 million in 2021 to $11.5 million for the upcoming year.
In July, the city council voted to approve raises of $4,500 per year for police officers and $3,875.50 for full-time firefighters. During the budgeting process, they also approved a raise for part-time firefighters from $16 to $18 per hour, and for those certified as medics from $16 to $20 per hour.
Budget lines for police and fire pensions have also received a corresponding increase.
The city will now submit its finalized budget to the state Department of Local Government Finance, which will need to approve it before the first of the year.
Included with that submission will be a petition compiled by resident Larry Silver and signed by several other Greenfield citizens objecting to elements of the budget, including the raises for mayor and clerk-treasurer, spending on beautifying new medians along State Road 9, and funding for a study on a possible expansion to Park Cemetery.
The city council also unanimously approved an increase to city utility customers’ bills that is intended to pay for a new water tower on the city’s south side, replacing Greenfield’s oldest tower. The project could cost about $5 million by 2023. For customers, the increase will be one of 4% per year for the next three years, translating to a total increase of about $3 per month for an average residential customer. The city last raised water rates in 2015, but last year approved a fee increase for wastewater treatment that will nearly double customers’ rates by 2022.