City of Charlotte Releases Proposed Fiscal Year 2025 Budget

Published on May 06, 2024

CHARLOTTE, N.C (May 6, 2024) – Today, City Manager Marcus D. Jones presented his Proposed Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 Budget to the Mayor and members of City Council.

“I am pleased to propose a budget that advances upward mobility for our community, commits to continued service excellence, and meaningfully invests in our residents, employees and businesses,” said City Manager Marcus Jones. “With this budget, we will continue to provide the high level of services that our community has come to expect while also acknowledging the need for additional revenues to support our growing city.”

Highlights of the proposed 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.
  • 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, Ballantyne Reimagined, and the construction of Garrison Road North in the River District.
  • Supports enhancements for transportation safety with a $20 million investment for Vision Zero—largest investment in program history.
  • $300 million total investment in transportation and neighborhood bonds—largest in city’s 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.

• 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 complete a two-year plan that has raised the top pay of Police Officers by 16%, to $104,801 (with a 4-year degree).
  • Supports Fire Pay Plan employees with pay increases up to 7.5% (including step).
  • 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.

• Structurally balanced budget with a 2-year lens:
  • 1.5 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.
    • $4.48/month impact to the median household.
  • 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.

• Continues to prioritize advancement towards the city’s Strategic Energy Action Plan goals with:
  •  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.

• Demonstrates continued commitment to SAFE Charlotte’s violence reduction framework through:
  • The addition of one new CARES (Community Assistance: Respond, Engage, Support) team.
  • $500,000 in funding for the Alternatives to Violence program along Beatties Ford Road.
  • Continued support of Project BOOST, our hospital-based violence intervention program.
  • Allocates $3.5 million to support Council-directed efforts associated with evidence-based juvenile programs aimed at reducing crime.

Additional Budget Highlights

Workforce and Business Development

• Continues support for programs such as AMP Up Charlotte and NXT|CLT to advance business growth and education for minority and women-owned businesses.
• Supports the realignment of resources to develop a team dedicated to promoting workforce development opportunities for city staff and the community.

Great Neighborhoods

• Provides $1 million in funding to support efforts to address homelessness and housing instability.
•  Supports access to safe, affordable, quality housing with more than $1.5 million for programs providing down payment assistance, urgent home repair, home ownership counseling, rental and utility assistance, and legal and professional services.

Safe Communities

• Adds one ladder company for the new Firehouse 45 in Hidden Valley, one ladder company at Firehouse 20 to serve southwest Charlotte, and one ladder company to serve the Charlotte Douglas International Airport. These additions will maintain service times within rapidly growing areas and provide expedited response times at the airport.
• Provides funding to add 16 civilian crash investigators for traffic crashes that do not result in any personal injury or involve any criminal activity; these types of crashes equated to more than 31,000 hours of officer time in 2022.
• 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.

Transportation and Planning 

• Provides $2 million in funding to pilot Mobility Innovation Districts to expand safe and equitable travel choices for all.
• Allocates $1.0 million in operating funding, $1.261 million in PAYGO, and $24.6 million in bond funding to enhance Powell Bill funding for resurfacing of the city’s more than 5,500 lane miles of streets.

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).

The proposed budget will have a public hearing on May 13, followed by budget adjustments on May 20 and straw votes on May 30. Council will consider the budget for adoption on June 10. The 2025 fiscal year begins July 1, 2024.

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