Proposed 2024 LR budget set for $257.5M
Members of the Little Rock Board of Directors during a meeting on Tuesday were presented with a proposed budget for 2024 that would balance general-fund revenue and expenses at $257.5 million.
The proposed budget would provide a bonus to new 911 communications personnel and boost the city’s annual contribution to the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts, which recently underwent a massive overhaul.
City board members must approve a budget before the end of the year. A final vote to adopt the budget likely will occur sometime in December.
Scott Massanelli, the city’s treasury manager and interim chief financial officer, as well as Amanda Watson, special operations manager within the Finance Department, presented the proposed budget to the city board on Tuesday.
In addition to the general fund, the city budgets for street, waste disposal, fleet, vehicle storage and parking garage funds. Across all these funds, the proposed 2024 budget would set revenue and expenses at roughly $333 million and $331 million, respectively, resulting in net income of close to $2.8 million.
Anticipated revenue in the proposed general-fund budget for 2024 is nearly $9.9 million higher compared to the 2023 amended budget.
The draft budget presented on Tuesday anticipates slightly higher revenue from sales and use taxes: roughly $143 million in the 2024 budget proposal versus the $141.5 million forecast for 2023. Massanelli described the 2024 sales-tax revenue estimate as a conservative one.
The step increases to police officers’ salaries would increase by 5% under the proposed budget. Officers and members of the command staff with more than 15 years of service would receive an additional 4% boost to their step increases.
Officials plan to make no change to the $10,000 sign-on bonus for police recruits that was doubled from the previous $5,000 as part of the 2022 budget, but the size of the police recruit class is expected to increase from 35 to 65.
A vote by police union members tied to the proposed annual contract for the upcoming year has yet to take place, Mayor Frank Scott Jr. indicated at one point during Tuesday’s meeting.
Firefighters will receive a 1.75% pay increase next year on top of an earlier 6% increase due to a two-year agreement reached with the International Association of Fire Fighters for 2023.
Non-uniformed, full-time personnel would receive a 2% across-the-board pay increase under the 2024 budget proposal. They previously received a 3.5% increase as part of the budget adopted for the current year.
Additionally, the proposed budget would increase the minimum salary for code enforcement officers and supervisors to $41,600 and $49,200, respectively, and institute a $2,500 recruit incentive for the Department of Emergency Communications.
The proposed budget would account for 1,768 fulltime personnel under the general fund, an increase of one compared to the budget adopted for the current year. Total full-time personnel across all city funds would increase by six to 2,265.
Under general fund contracts, compared to the amended budget for 2023, the Parks and Recreation Department would receive a $400,000 increase for parks projects and upkeep while the Department of Housing and Neighborhood Programs would receive a $500,000 increase for the operations of a homeless village.
For the city’s contributions to outside agencies, the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts, which reopened to the public earlier this year following extensive renovations, would receive an additional $1.8 million under the proposed 2024 budget for a total annual allocation of $4 million.
The Museum of Discovery and the Downtown Little Rock Partnership would see increases of $208,000 and $75,000 in city support, respectively. Overall, the city’s budget for outside agency support would increase by roughly $1.9 million compared to the current year.