The Knoxville City Council convened a legislative budget hearing starting at 8:03 AM on May 7, 2026, to review the proposed FY27 budget. CFO Boyce Evans presented a balanced $663.5 million total budget ($499 million net) with no new taxes, emphasizing strategic investments in core services, public safety, affordable housing, and parks. The budget is leaner than prior years, using $6 million in unassigned fund balance for one-time capital projects and reducing capital spending by $7.2 million. Revenues are flattening, with sales tax growth slowing to 3% and property tax growth projected at 1.75%. The general fund is $344 million, up 6.5%. Employee full-time spaces would increase by 18 to 1,636, and part-time positions drop by 6 to 21. The hearing continued through the afternoon with department presentations, followed by a public hearing at 5:00 PM.
Good morning. It is 803, and I'd like to go ahead and call our legislative budget hearing meeting to order. Do you mind call the role? It's so nice not to have to call the roll and be all formal. So first up with two minutes to spare. I'm getting ahead of schedule, boys. We're gonna start you at 803 instead of 805. That's good, ma'am. I understand that the mayor can't be with us today, and you are going to uh set up the introduction to the budget for us. That is correct. Yes, ma'am. Go ahead. Go ahead. Okay, well, uh, the Meyer said as the vice mayor said, uh, welcome, good morning to the uh legislative budget hearings for the FY27 proposed budget. And the purpose of this is to review uh some key highlights and details of the proposed budget and then answer questions that you may have uh per the agenda. I will be followed after I do the kind of the big picture overview. I'll be followed by the various departments and partner agencies, and you'll be able to uh ask them questions as well, and finance will assist where we can. Uh the mayor's not here, but you know, I thought she summarized uh the budget best when she said that uh it was balanced with uh no new uh taxes, 499 million dollar net budget, uh that invests strategically while emphasizing core services. I thought that was a good uh a good lead-in on it. It is a bit leaner uh, but it continues to prioritize public safety, affordable housing, parks, and uh high quality focused services. Uh it's also got a forward-looking uh commitment to great public spaces, quality of life, job creation, and proven partnerships to get results. Now, before I get digging into the math and everything, uh just want to introduce who I've got here with me. Uh, most of you know Kitrin Smith, the deputy CFO, my right hand in all things financial. Uh, she is also in charge of our accounting division and our uh treasury division. I've got also back here, they've moved one space back so they could get a little further away from the line of fire. Miss Penny Owens, our purchasing agent, who's in charge of the purchasing division and all procurements, and I've got Miss Donna Dyer, our revenue administrator, who is in charge of all things dealing taking in money. She's in charge of the revenue division. So anyway, I want to take a few minutes right now to cover the highlights of the proposed budget and then uh open it up to questions that you might have. First off, as I said in that intro, it's a balanced budget with no tax increases. It is somewhat tighter than in uh previous years, and that's evidenced. Uh, the two things that pop up top of my mind are we're proposing the use of six million in unassigned fund balance for one-time capital projects, and even with that capital is down 7.2 million in what we propose from the current FY. So uh again, a little bit tighter. Uh it still provides top notch services uh for our citizens. We have healthy fund balance and reserves that are maintained in this. It's got a sound debt portfolio and bond ratings, no change there. In fact, it's improving. The pension fund is strong and properly funded. Our property tax is strong, it's still growing, but the growth there is normally slow, and the sales tax is still growing, albeit a good bit slower than it was uh several years back. Now, in terms of the hardcore figures, our total budget is six hundred and sixty-three and a half million, so that's nine point four percent or fifty-six point eight million higher than the current FY, and that reflects inflation and higher pay for personnel and benefits, you know, those compound each year. Uh, the net budget, which excludes interfund transfers and charges, is four hundred and ninety nine million. So that's four point six increase, which is twenty one point eight million higher than the current FY. The general fund is 344 million. So that's up 6.5% or 21 million compared to the current FY. Capital is 40.7 million that's proposed, which is 7.2 million less than the current FY. Our employee full-time spaces are proposed to go up by 18, so it would go from 1,618 spaces in the current FY to $1,636 spaces full time in FY27. And the part time will go drop down by from 27 to 21 for a decrease of six. Now when I say costs are up, part of that, of course, is depending on what category, especially, depends on inflation. Inflation hovers around 2.5 to 3.2%, depending on the cost category. And of course, the compounding effects each year of personnel and benefits costs since we implemented the compensation study recommendations back in 2022, and we did that all at once. It's up 19.6%, which equates to around 2.2 million dollars.