City of Graham adopts budget, same tax rate as previous year

The city of Graham approved their fiscal year 2021-2022 budget and tax rate during their regular meeting Thursday, adopting the same rate as the previous year. The Graham City Council also approved an increase in the sewer utility rate to build a reserve fund for sewer projects.

The city of Graham hosted two public hearings regarding the proposed budget and tax rate Thursday, Sept. 2 and Thursday, Sept. 9. The council Thursday approved the same tax rate as the previous fiscal year of $0.605 per $100 valuation. The budget will raise more revenue from property taxes than last year’s budget by $138,267.75, or a 6.67% increase from the No New Revenue tax rate of $0.552 per $100 valuation.

The tax rate will still include a 3% raise for city employees, or approximately $102,000. Graham City Manager Brandon Anderson stated in budget workshops and during both public hearings the city should move forward with the same rate as last year of $0.605 per $100 valuation while funding a 3% raise for city employees which he said could be achieved through conservative budgeting. The city manager reiterated the statement Thursday.

"We discussed that when we were talking about doing raises (...). If we were to get that to fund the 3% raise across the board we would have to adopt a higher tax rate. We talked about (how we) feel good about the conservative budgeting on the revenue side that will make up that $19,000,” Anderson said.

For the rest of the story, see the Oct. 2 edition of The Graham Leader.