So what I'd like to say is that you know this is our um introductory meeting.

So we have lots of time and and have get allocated a number of times when we'll have budget public hearing on the 12th, and we'll have adjustments and comments from the council members, and we would need to have those hopefully by the 19th, so that everyone can be ready and prepared for the next year's budget.

So with that, I'm going to um turn it over to the manager, unless there's something else that the council has had I'm sorry.

We're going to do introductions, thank you.

All right, let's start with our clerk.

Billy Tons, Deputy City Clerk.

Anthony Fox Interim City Attorney.

Renee Johnson, and I have the honor of representing District Four.

Good evening, Marjorie Molina, District Five.

Good evening, Dimple Ashmera.

Edlarge.

Good evening, Dante Anderson, Mayor Pro Tem, District 1.

Good evening, Vi Lauz Mayor.

Good evening, Malcolm Graham, District 2.

Ed Dregs, District 7.

All right.

If you would introduce yourself.

Of course.

It is Tijuana Brown.

Charlotte City Council District 3.

All right.

All right.

Julia Martin City Manager's Office.

Okay.

Any other things that we need to do before we dive in.

Hearing none.

Mr.

Jones, you have the floor.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor and members of council.

Uh Julia and I were trying to count and we're counting on our fingers, and I guess that's not the best way to start a budget presentation.

But we think this is the uh ninth uh budget presentation that I provided to the city council.

So I I'm pleased to begin the presentation.

Um, and I really want to start with FY 2024.

We talked a bit about being at an inflection point uh in this community in trying to navigate how we could go about providing excellent services.

Um, and to make sure that there's a cost effective to uh residents.

So in FY 2024, we talked a bit about um whether we would be in the decline, be on the steady trajectory, or even um it advance it a bit.

And so by the time we got to FY uh 25, uh you did approve a 1.37 property tax increase with about 0.82 going to operating primarily public safety, another 0.24 going to capital, really housing and mobility, and lastly, 0.31 going into arts and culture.

I will tell you that in uh the current budget, what that allowed us to do, especially around the capital piece, is to have a storic investments in uh corridors and affordable housing as well as in transportation.

So I'll start with the corridors, and I don't think the story has been told enough that it's really uh a five-year journey starting off with some investments in the corridors.

I believe it was 14.5 million in the CIP and 10 million dollars in paygo uh back in 2020.

And I just want to say that those investments over the years at 95.6 million has really pulled in for every dollar that the city has invested, 1.71 dollars in the private sector and federal grants.

So really as we start to look at this not as 95.6 million dollars of city investment, but 260 million in community investment over the last five years.

I would be remiss if uh I didn't bring up with Angela.

Charles says to me over and over again, she says, Marcus, don't leave out what's happening with infrastructure.

So you take that same period of time, Charlotte Water has invested 396 million in the corridors and stormwater, another 154 million.

So $810 million invested in our corridors for opportunity.

It was never the thought process that the city would do this alone.

And the great news is that folks have come along with us.

Also, with that project tax increase last year, we were able to do more in terms of the bond with the housing trust fund.

What's important is if you look at the uh three bars, um, not quite to the far right, but before the blue bar, uh, that's when the housing trust fund went up to 50 million.

And so if you start to look at those bonds, that's 47% of all the units that have been constructed since the beginning of the housing trust fund back in 2002, and we just can't wait to see what we'll get out of the 2024 bond, which was 100 million dollars in terms of affordable housing trust fund.

It's a new approach.

Instead of just having multifamily construction uh through the um housing community safety uh committee and this council, you came up with new goals, economic mobility, neighborhood affordability, and residential stability, and not just a focus on multifamily uh construction but home ownership, natural occurring affordable housing, rehab and repair, shelter and supporting supportive housing, and collaboration.

And then uh just as important as the first two, uh the uh historical bond for transportation, 238 million dollars, uh 123 million more than the highest on record, but it was not just roads, it is congestion mitigation, vision zero sidewalks, and it's not just the sidewalks with 50 million and vision zero with 20 million, but it was a test 55 million dollars in what we call strategic investment areas.

So let's think about the six corridors of opportunity, and then overlay that with 16 additional areas where infrastructure is uh important.

So, what we did is took that 55 million and tested it in two of these strategic investment areas.

And while this may seem simple, it's extremely important.

You know, a sidewalk that we identified in August, it was constructed by January.

But more importantly, it was the missing link between a bus stop and miles of existing neighborhood sidewalks.