TOWN MANAGER PRESENTS RECOMMENDED BUDGET TO BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

Town Manager Becky Hawke presented the recommended budget for the Town of Matthews Fiscal Year (FY) 2023-2024 during the May 8 Town Board meeting.

The balanced budget sets a strong foundation for the upcoming fiscal year to continue providing high quality services to the Matthews community.

The budget also includes significant expansions in operations to meet the needs of the organization. This includes funding for Fire Station #3, increased solid waste costs, increased funding for paving maintenance, and fully funding a competitive employee pay plan, among others. These expansions are funded through a combination of increased revenues, retiring debt service, and otherwise conservative funding across many individual budget lines.

The Recommended FY 23-24 Annual Budget totals $34,364,889, which reflects a 20% increase over the FY 23 Original Budget ($28,541,985) and a 1% decrease from the FY 23 Amended Budget of $34,719,333.

The Mecklenburg County Assessor’s Office has completed revaluation of real property for 2024. Total real property values in Matthews are expected to increase 33.6% over 2023 actual values, from $5.414 billion to $7.231 billion.

Factoring in the revaluation of real property, the revenue neutral tax rate for FY 23-24 is 22.69-cents per hundred.

The recommended budget sets the new tax rate at 26.65-cents per hundred, which is an effective increase of 3.96-cents per hundred above the revenue neutral tax rate. This represents a 17.5% increase over the revenue neutral rate.

The budget process continues with a workshop to be held on Monday, May 15. See below for the complete budget timeline.

Citizens are invited to provide their input during the public hearing scheduled for May 22 or by contacting the Board of Commissioners directly.