Birmingham City Council passes new city budget
The Birmingham City Council, at its regular meeting for Tuesday, June 29, unanimously passed the city’s operating budget of just over $436 million for Fiscal Year 2019.
Mayor Randall Woodfin said in a statement that the budget fits with his administration’s “core values and commitment to neighborhood revitalization.”
The highlights of the budget include $10 for transit, $8.3 million for Community Development Block Grants and $3 million for city schools.
The budget allots $2 million for demolition of abandoned houses amd $1.2 million for weed abatement.
City employees will receive their longevity pay and a one-percent cost of living adjustment, and the city will boost its contribution to the employee pension plan by $2.9 million.
And the budget also creates the new Department of Innovation and Economic Opportunity, which replaces the Office of Economic Development.
The IEO is intended to help the city do a better job of managing the money it doles out each year to various businesses, nonprofits and other external entities in a effort to promote or stimulate Birmingham’s economy.
Woodfin called the creation of the IEO a “reset” in terms of the way the city doles out economic incentives.
In the future, all groups seeking financial assistance must file RFPs with the city, and the IEO will use performance metrics to evaluate the return on investment of taxpayer dollars.
The new department is designed to make “sure every economic development dollar we allocate, every workforce development dollar we allocate, goes to increase our workforce and to support small business,” Woodfin said at a press conference following the vote.
Woodfin submitted his proposed budget, his first as mayor, to the Council on May 1.
The Council then suggested some revisions, and the administration produced a final version.
This is the first time the budget has been approved before July 1 -- the beginning of the new fiscal year -- since 2014 and only the fourth time since 2006, according to the mayor's office.
At a press conference following the vote, Woodfin offered the Council “thanks and kudos” for working with him effectively to craft the budget on time
To pass the budget today, the Council actually held separate votes on a series of 16 individual agenda items necessary to adopt the entire budget.
“Our budget has passed," said Valerie Abbott after the votes, who then made reference to a long meeting of the Budget and Finance Committee Monday night that laid the groundwork for today’s passage.
“After that four-hour marathon meeting last night, I think we are all delighted that the budget passed,” Abbott said.