A $69.2 million budget was approved for the city of Greenwood Monday night.
City council members nearly unanimously approved the budget, along with salaries for city employees and elected officials. A property tax levy appeal was also approved in an 8-1 vote, with member Dave Lekse voting against.
The budget and tax rates themselves were initially passed 9-0, however, the vote later became 8-0 with one abstention from council member Michael Williams. He had initially voted in favor of the budget before Mayor Mark Myers brought it to the council’s attention that legally all members had to be present in person to vote on the budget and tax rates. Williams was attending via Zoom, and after a brief discussion, he abstained from that vote.
Salaries for city employees, city judge and the mayor passed unanimously in 9-0 votes — though the city employee salary ordinance was amended to fix typos. The salary for the council members passed 8-1 with Williams voting against, while the salary for City Clerk Jeannine Myers passed 8-1 with council president Mike Campbell against.
No members of the public spoke about the budget or salaries during Monday’s meeting.
Budget overview
The majority of 2025’s nearly $69.2 million budget — about $67.9 million — is the city’s operating budget, with the remainder being for capital projects. Cash on hand will be utilized in some funds to pay for capital improvements within the capital budget.
Greenwood’s 2024 budget includes a 4% cost-of-living increase for all employees, new positions, two new fire engines, two new dump trucks with plows, three pickup trucks with plows, a mini-excavator, additional bullet-proofing at police department’s gun range and a new drone.
For 2024, the city is expecting roughly $65.2 million in revenue. The budget is also expected to be “structurally balanced” while inflation continues to be a factor, officials said.
As for taxes, City Controller Greg Wright says the plan is for the city’s tax rate to be $0.6732 — which would not be an increase. Still, people may see their taxes go up due to changes in assessed value for properties — which is assessed by county officials, not the city.
Some of the proceeds from the 2024 general obligation bond, or GO bond, will be used to fund paving projects, along with sidewalk panel replacements.
The city does again plan to request a maximum property tax levy appeal to receive more in tax revenue because the city grew faster than the state over the last three years. Officials plan to raise about $1.3 million in the appeal to support the fire department by adding six new firefighters to staff a 24-hour medic squad at a second station.
Last year, the city’s levy appeal request was heavily discussed by council members, with it ultimately passing with an earmark for it to be used only for public safety. The appeals will have little or no impact on homeowners’ tax bills as the city tax rate will not change, officials previously said.
Unlike last year, there was very little discussion about the levy appeal. Council members were mostly in favor of it.
Public safety
The largest chunk of the 2026 budget is dedicated to public safety. About $24.5 million, or 33.8%, of the proposed budget is allocated for public safety.
The fire department is continuing efforts to staff up ahead of the construction of a new fire station, Station 95, and for a new rescue squad. The new station, which would be located on the city’s southeast side near Worthsville Road and Interstate 65, is expected to open in 2026.
For the new station, a total of 12 additional firefighters are being hired this year through the levy appeal approved last year. This is separate from a request in this year’s budget to hire six more probationary firefighters for the rescue squad, Wright said.
The hiring of the six new probation firefighters is dependent upon the receipt of a SAFER Grant, which provides 75% reimbursement, and/or the levy appeal, Wright said last month.
Within the capital improvement budget, two new fire engines would be purchased with delivery in 2025. The city had planned to purchase engines from one vendor, but they wouldn’t have been delivered until 2027, so they switched, Wright said.
For the police department, two new probationary officers and one new civilian position are proposed. The civilian position would be for public relations and grant writing, Wright said.
The police department also received a 6.2% salary adjustment for full-time positions, while the fire department received a 4% increase. The PERF contribution increased to 20.3% of 1st Class Officer pay for the police department, and to 20.3% of 1st Class Firefighter pay for the fire department.
There was also a $1,000 increase for the four officers with a drone pilot specialty.
While council members did not comment about public safety pay at Monday’s meeting, they did comment on it during their Oct. 7 meeting.
Council member Ezra Hill, a member of the council’s public safety meet and confer committee which meets with fire and police officials, said committee members and public safety officials pushed for a 9% increase in salaries. While this couldn’t happen, the 4% fire department and 6% police department pay increases are “better than nothing,” he said.
Although the mayor, with council members’ support, has made major improvements in public safety — which are going in the right direction — Hill doesn’t think the city is at where they need to be, he said. The city needs public safety personnel who are content with the pay and benefits, he said.
Hill suggested that instead of asking for lump sum increases, officials should do a three-year approach of 5% from 2026 to 2028. Under this formula, the pay would increase by 5% each year for three years. He came up with this after doing some research, he said.
He will also be looking at the data over the next three years that shows Greenwood’s public safety turnover and recruitment, he said.
“Whenever the city loses a firefighter or police officer, it’s quite the process to replace them, and that puts our public safety service at risk,” Hill said. “We need to be proactive in trying to prevent that from happening.”
Hill added that while he would support the budget with the less than 5% increase this year, which he did ultimately do, he would not support budgets with less than a 5% increase going forward.
Council member Erin Betron, another member of the committee, told her fellow council members that out of the 37 full-time fire departments in a 45-mile radius near Greenwood, 22 have firefighters that make more annually than Greenwood. The pay is also not close to other Class II cities, she said.
While Greenwood Fire recently started a program that allows them to hire people who are not fire certified yet, a program Betron says is great, she questioned what was going to keep those people from leaving once they get fully-qualified and go to another fire department.
“Obviously, everybody’s struggling financially, right? So we want to make sure that we’re doing our best by our people, and that includes both fire and police,” Betron said.
The public can learn more about the budget through the city’s interactive budget website available at shorturl.at/4UkOz.
