City of Charlotte Adopts Fiscal Year 2025 Budget

Published on June 10, 2024

Charlotte City Council has adopted the Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 Budget and FY 2025 – 2029 Capital Investment Plan. FY 2025 for the city begins on July 1, 2024.

Highlights of the FY 2025 budget include:

• Capital investments to support our growing community:
  • Increases 2024 Housing Bond funding from $50 million to $100 million to be dedicated to creating and preserving affordable housing—largest housing bond investment in the city’s history.
  • $300 million total investment in transportation and neighborhood bonds—largest in city’s history.
  • Continues to advance projects within the Corridors of Opportunity with a $30 million total investment.
  • Allocates $55 million in funding to support Strategic Investment Areas implementation, a new, data-driven approach to project identification that aligns mobility and infrastructure funding with the greatest need.
  • Provides $50 million for improving sidewalks to make Charlotte a more walkable city that is safe and equitable for pedestrians—matching the largest commitment in program history.
  • Supports economic development partnerships with $36.7 million, including infrastructure reimbursement for Atrium’s Innovation District and Ballantyne Reimagined.
  • Provides $24.6 million to resurface streets, which is in addition to the $13.7 million of State Powell Bill Distribution funding dedicated to street resurfacing.
  • Supports enhancements for transportation safety with a $20 million investment for Vision Zero—largest investment in program history.
  • Supports expansion of the 911 call center in CMPD headquarters and the Police and Fire training academy with $7 million in funding.
  • Provides another $14.5 million for the construction of new firehouses to ensure response times are met.
  • Reallocates future Advanced Planning capacity in the Certificates of Participation debt program to Animal Care and Control.
• A continued focus on retaining and investing in our employees:
  • Provides a 5% salary increase for all hourly employees (2.5% increases in both July and November) with a minimum increase of $3,280, boosting the increase to 7% for the city’s lowest paid employees.
  • Provides a 4% merit pool for salaried employees.
  • Provides a 5-7.5% pay increase (including step) for Police Pay Plan employees.
    • These actions compelte a two-year plan that has raised the top pay of Police Officers by 16%, to $104,801 (with a 4-year degree).
    • Advances salary increases for Senior Police Officers and Sergeants from January to November.
  • Supports Fire Pay Plan employees with pay increases up to 7.5% (including step).
  • Amends the plan provisions to provide that the city will cover the full healthcare insurance premium for spouses and dependents of city employees killed in the line of duty while they remain eligible for coverage.
  • Increases the minimum pay for 40-hour hourly employees to $23/hour.
  • Provides a salary increase equivalent to hourly employees for Mayor and City Council.
  • Supports the realignment of resources to develop a team dedicated to promoting workforce development opportunities for city staff and the community.
• Structurally balanced budget with a 2-year lens:
  • 1.37 cent property tax increase to support capital investments, arts and culture, and city operations (primarily public safety).
    • First property tax increase in 6 years.
    • Maintains the lowest tax rate of any North Carolina city with a population larger than 75,000 residents.
    • $4.09/month impact to the median household ($358,600).
  • Reduces the Proposed property tax increase of 1.50 cents by 0.13 cents through the following actions:
    • Creates $1,129,964 General Fund personnel reduction, and
    • Adjusts the street resurfacing cash supplement (which is in addition to Powell Bill and transportation bonds) by $1,747,200.
  • Maintains or enhances core services.
  • Maintains operating reserves.
• An investment in our residents by providing excellent service and ensuring a safe, clean and equitable future:
  • Supports a sustainable arts ecosystem with an investment of $11 million for Arts and Culture.
  • Adds 57 new firefighter positions to support the public safety needs of our growing population.
  • Provides three new Fire ladder companies to improve ladder coverage for the city and improve service response times.
  • Launches four new apprenticeship roles for the citywide apprenticeship program.
  • Collaborates with Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools (CMS) to place 17 CMS high school graduates and offer starting pay at $47,480.
  • The addition of one new energy coordinator to the city’s sustainability team. $3.5 million allocation to support the expansion of the city’s solar capacity, electric charging stations infrastructure, and other sustainability initiatives.
  • Funding for 70 electric vehicles to advance emissions reductions in the city’s fleet.
  • The addition of one new CARES (Community Assistance: Respond, Engage, Support) team.
  • Continues support for programs such as AMP Up Charlotte and NXT|CLT to advance business growth and education for minority and women-owned businesses.
  • Provides $1 million in funding to support efforts to address homelessness and housing instability.
  • Supports a 29% increase in the number of positions dedicated to the daily care and adoption of animals at the Animal Care and Control shelter.

To support the continued growth of the city and invest in critical infrastructure, the proposed budget includes three service fee increases:

• Solid waste ($0.78 monthly increase).
• Storm water (4.9% which equates to a $0.47 monthly increase for the typical customer).
• Water (5.75% which equates to a $4.37 monthly increase for the typical customer).

Based on the May 20 and May 30 budget meetings, City Council also authorized American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) and ARPA interest earnings for the following items:

• ARPA Funding
  • $1.5 million of unutilized HOMES Program funding returned from Mecklenburg County to be utilized for a Faith in Housing initiative, and
  • $427,500 of previously appropriated HIRE Charlotte ARPA funding will support the following organizations and initiatives in FY 2025:
    • $250,000 in addition to the $250,000 in PAYGO funding included in the Proposed Budget for litter clean up and workforce development for formerly incarcerated individuals,
    • $177,500 for the following non-profit organizations:
      • Carolinas Asian Chamber of Commerce ($100,000), and
      • Stiletto Boss University ($77,500).
      • ARPA Interest Earnings
  • $1 million in addition to the $3.5 million in PAYGO funding included in the Proposed Budget for programs aimed at reducing juvenile crime,
  • $1 million in addition to $1.5 million unutilized HOMES Program funding returned from Mecklenburg County to be utilized for Faith in Housing initiatives, bringing the total amount to $2,500,000,
  • $1 million to support Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools’ workforce housing Teacher Village,
  • $287,000 for the Charlotte Black Film Festival,
  • $100,000 for the Boom Charlotte arts festival,
  • $143,950 for the purchase active shooter kits for Police,
  • $97,500 for the purchase of portable ballistic shields for Police, and
  • $534,000 for the following non-profit organizations:
    • Block Love ($100,000),
    • Carolina Youth Coalition ($100,000),
    • Charlotte Museum of History ($100,000),
    • Hearts for the Invisible ($100,000),
    • Home Again Foundation ($100,000), and
    • Save Our Children Movement ($34,000).

To learn more about these and other important initiatives of the FY 2025 budget, please visit charlottenc.gov/budget.