The City of Savannah’s 2023 budget is not the record-setting, “once in a lifetime,” “fairytale budget” the mayor and alderman passed in 2022, as Mayor Van Johnson put it.
But the proposed $493 million plan comes with investments in law enforcement and broader city services, and continues council’s commitment to affordable housing, albeit at $2 million, a far cry from the $7 million investment in the Savannah Affordable Housing Fund last year. An additional $550,000 will be contributed to homelessness support services grants.
Johnson spoke highly of last year's budget at a Nov. 14 budget workshop. This year it's back to “reality," he said.
"Last year was a Christmas budget. It was Christmas and Hanukah and all these wonderful things. It was a fairytale budget. It was a masterful, wonderful, once-in-a-lifetime, once-in-a-generation budget that will never happen again. Everybody got what we wanted," Johnson said. "We did everything we wanted to do.”
The general fund, which is the main operating fund for the city, will be stocked with $239 million, with no tax increase or planned draw from reserves. The five-year general fund forecast doesn’t predict a deficit, but City Manager Jay Melder said city staff will be keeping an eye on costs in a volatile economic climate.
Additionally, the FY23 budget includes about $95 million in...
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