Speaker numbers apply only to this recording.
The Sandy Springs City Council held a special called meeting on May 19, 2026, at 2:00 PM for the second FY 2027 budget workshop. City Manager Eden Freeman led the review of General Fund revenues, expenditures, and several policy topics. The meeting included discussions on revenue projections, speed detection cameras, trail funding, recreation programs, and the creation of an Office of Innovation and Delivery. No formal votes were taken, but council provided direction on several items.
General Fund Revenues – Overview
Speed Detection Devices – House Bill 651
Morgan Falls Football Field Usage
Current Tree Fund Balance
Front Yard Tree Program
Recreation and Parks Scholarships
Recreation and Parks Programming Requests
Bathroom Inventory
Springway 2C (Trail Segment 2C) Potential Funding
City Springs Theater Company
MRH Program Compliance
Public Works Subcontractor Agreements
Office of Innovation and Delivery
Homeless Outreach and Referral Services
FY 2027 Capital Budget Assumptions
Convening has arrived to start our uh budget workshop number two. We do have the forum. So with that, I'll turn it on to city manager. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh members of council, good afternoon. We are happy to be back with you two weeks after budget workshop one to continue our FY 2027 budget process. In front of you today to go into your binder is a copy of the slides that we will be reviewing today. As a recap, first up is the remainder of the schedule for our budget calendar this year. As I mentioned today, is budget workshop number two. We will be back next Tuesday, which is the day after Memorial Day in this room for the formal presentation, the line item detail of the proposed budget, and to answer any additional questions that may have come up after today's workshop and during today's workshop. Then on June the 2nd, we have our first public hearing scheduled, and finally on June 16th, we are scheduled for our final public hearing and budget adoption. So the purpose of today's meeting is really to review our revenue projections. We're going to take a look at the general fund. When we come back in a week, we'll go through the other funds that the city budget includes. And the purpose as well is to compare what we are projecting for full year FY26, so for the remainder of this budget year as it relates to our FY 2027 budget. We do this very conservatively, and we'll talk a little bit more about that on the next slide. But we really put a lot of time and effort into coming up with our revenue estimates because we want to make sure that we are being responsible and not overcommitting our future budget revenues. And also we're going to answer any follow-up questions that have come up since our first budget workshop. Again, keeping with our established practice, we conservatively determine our revenue and expenses. What does that really mean? Well, we overestimate our expenditures each year and we underestimate our revenues so that we avoid unsightly surprises anytime during the budget year. When we practice solid estimating, it neutralizes the pressures that we may have during the year from multiple sources as it relates to revenues coming in. Also, an underlying fundamental principle for our budget process is that we never propose using one-time revenue sources for ongoing expenses. That creates an automatic unfunded increase in subsequent budgets and is absolutely not a good practice to incorporate in municipal budgeting. As a reminder, all expenditures that are proposed in our budget workshop today are tied back directly to council's adopted priorities. We practice a priority-based budgeting process, so staff has to clearly tie back every request that they make to one of council's adopted priorities, which as a reminder we discussed during the retreat in February of this year, and then you all adopted at the second in February. So without any further ado, and it went a little too quickly. In our general fund revenues, obviously, the largest source of revenue for our budget is property taxes. We are projecting modest organic growth with no tax increases or rate changes in this budget. You will notice that for the amount that we are projecting for our 2027 budget, it is still less than what we will ultimately collect in FY 2026. Motor vehicle is the old motor vehicle tax where you used to pay when you would purchase a vehicle. That is being phased out as those vehicles purchased under that old taxing structure age out. That's the old birthday tax that you had to pay every year. The TABT is the set title tax that unfortunately, as we are all aware, vehicle purchases are getting more expensive, and people don't seem to be buying as many, so we are keeping that number flat within the budget this year. Intangible tax is also scheduled to remain the same. Real estate transfer tax is scheduled to remain the same. Our electric franchise fee, which is the fee that Georgia Power pays us for the use of the city's rights of way. We're projecting a $500,000 increase, which is still less than the amount that Georgia Power remitted to the city in FY26. Our gas franchise fee is what Atlanta Gas Light pays to the city for the use of the right-of-way and also all of the unregulated partners it is collected and remitted to us. Cable TV franchise you'll see is decreasing, which is simply a factor of changing way that people consume media at home, not as many folks they've opted to cut the cable, and the state has not come up with a means of replacing that revenue for us yet. Telephone franchise fee is also remaining the same. Solid waste, we're projecting a slight increase. That's based on actual collections by our numerous solid waste partners who contract with the city to use our roads and our rights of way. Local option sales tax.