We held our second budget hearing last Tuesday the 14th. Not having any major changes to discuss, we have cancelled our second budget workshop scheduled for Thursday the 23rd. The budget will be back on the agenda on 6/11.
So what is in the final budget? As of now, it stands at $219.6m, which is a 3.21% decrease from our amended 23-24 budget.
Tax rate of 34 cents per $100. This is 3.8 cents above revenue neutral, which is the lowest increase in the county, and second lowest overall tax rate.
Our electric rates are going up 14%, to 12 cents per kWh. Last year we decreased the per kWh cost and increased the base charge; this year we are raising the per kWh cost back up. The reasons are not great; inflation, maintenance costs, costs coming from Duke. Still, even with this increase, our electric costs are up to 20% lower than Duke was last year (not yet counting any increases coming to Duke this year).
Our staff presented an overall “Municipal cost comparison” which looks at the sum of all taxes and fees charged at each municipality. By this measure, Apex has the lowest costs in the county.
Again, below I’ve included the list of capital projects in the 2024 budget – this is unchanged from 5/2. I’ll dig into some of these projects a little more over the next few weeks.
VISION OF THE PEAK 