HICKORY – Hickory City Manager Warren Wood delivered his Fiscal Year (FY) 2025-2026 Recommended Budget to the Hickory City Council on May 20. The Recommended Budget totals $159,075,833 for all City operations, capital improvements, and debt service requirements for the upcoming year. This represents a 9.9% increase over the current year’s budget.
Approximately 80% of the City’s financial activity in the annual budget occurs in three funds: General, Water and Sewer, and Solid Waste.
General Fund (Main Operating Fund): A budget of $78,877,527 is recommended, which represents a 6.6% increase over the current year’s budget. The property tax rate for FY2025-2026 is recommended to increase from 45.5 to 46 cents per $100 of assessed value. This recommended 0.5 cent increase would produce $425,000 in additional revenue, and would be accounted for in a separate fund designated specifically for the City’s water and sewer resiliency project needs.
- Water and Sewer Fund: A 1% increase in customer and availability charges and a 5% increase in volume charges are recommended for the coming year to improve infrastructure and maintain enterprise operations. The average impact on a residential bill would be $1.51 per month.
- Solid Waste Fund: An increase of $1 is recommended to bring the monthly sanitation fee up to $29 per month for the upcoming fiscal year. This increase will help to offset rising operational costs.
In his budget message, Wood outlined the City of Hickory’s next set of strategic initiatives related to the City’s water and sewer system. Wood described how Hurricane Helene reinforced the importance of making the needed investments by saying, “As Hickory nears the end of implementing its 2014 Bond Program, we look towards meeting our medium and long-term utility infrastructure needs by creating a more redundant and resilient system.”
The Hickory City Council welcomes public input and will hold a public hearing on the FY2025-2026 Recommended Budget on Tuesday, June 3, at 6 p.m., during its regular City Council meeting at the Julian G. Whitener Municipal Building (76 North Center Street).
The full FY2025-2026 Recommended Budget is available for review online at www.hickorync.gov/budget.
The recommended budget is balanced and prepared in accordance with the Local Government Budget and Fiscal Control Act and Generally Accepted Accounting Principles.