The Knoxville City Council started their annual budget presentation season at their meeting Monday night.

The city breaks up presentations over several meetings, to give the council time to process each department’s budget, rather than receiving all the presentations in one night. The presentations break down the annual fiscal year budget for each department, provide the council and public with information regarding spending, and highlight any potential changes or projects coming up that will be funded. The first budget presentation that was held on Monday was for the Public Works Department. 

City Manager Heather Ussery says with House File 718 still bringing challenges to local city finance due to limitation percentages, Knoxville will see a straightforward budget this year. However, as the community continues to grow they have not been as affected as others. But, they still had to address a deficit when initial budget numbers came in. Ussery says they present a balanced budget to the council and also are able to put money into reserves. 

“Our city clerk and I worked with department heads. We really try and go back to ratchet the budget. We had to cut certain one time projects or equipment that were initially requested as part of this upcoming budget year to be able to get to a point where we have a balanced budget. Once we start our budget presentations we want to ensure what we are presenting is a balanced budget and we’re able to move forward with those requests.”

Hear more about budget season from Ussery on today’s Let’s Talk Knoxville.