UPDATE 06/28/2025: Spencer’s FY 2026 budget sustainably maintains services; Public Hearing June 5
Update 06/28/2025: Ordinance 25-11 Fiscal Year 2025 – 2026 Budget was ratified during open session on 06/28/2025 after being adopted during regular session on 06/10/2025.
Update 06/06/2025: The June 5 meeting is now available for viewing here and includes comments from the Board of Aldermen. The annual strategic planning session, which informs the proposed budget, can be found here (community input) and here (staff presentations and budget workshop). Agenda packets and minutes are available here.
Public Hearing scheduled for June 5 Board of Aldermen pre-agenda meeting
SPENCER – Town Manager Peter Franzese has recommended the fiscal year 2025-26 budget to the Spencer Mayor and Board of Aldermen (watch here). The proposed budget for FY26 totals $5,150,042 with $4,976,050 in the General Fund, $155,592 in the Powell Bill Fund, and $18,400 in the Capital Reserve and Replacement Fund. The recommended property tax rate is 62.5 cents per $100 of valuation, an increase from the current rate of 60.5 cents.
The proposed budget represents an overall decrease of approximately 13 percent from the FY25 adopted overall budget, and approximately 7 percent less than the FY25 adopted General Fund budget. The decrease in spending was driven by modest growth in assessed property values and nearly flat growth in sales tax, two key municipal revenue sources.
Continuing the effort to rely less on Fund Balance appropriations was an additional key factor in the recommended budget. Without considering the more than $466,000 in Fund Balance that was appropriated for FY25, the budget cycle started with an additional decrease of more than $325,000 in revenues such as ARPA funding and investment earnings.
Other proposed revenue adjustments for FY26 include a $3 monthly increase to the Solid Waste collection fee. This better supports the high level of collection services enjoyed by Spencer residents and offset increasing fuel and disposal costs, while minimizing the impact on other taxpayers who do not receive the Town’s collection services.
While striving to minimize the impact on community members through significant budget cuts and deferred requests, Franzese described how a more sustainable approach is necessary to maintain service delivery.
“While significant grant reimbursements received in the current Fiscal Year is positive for our available fund balance, we still need to work on less reliance on fund balance as a budget strategy to help grow our reserves over time,” he wrote. “The modest application of some available Fund Balance in next year’s budget in advance of projected significant assessed value growth will keep us moving in that direction.”
With a combined property tax and solid waste fee increase of about $95 annually for a property owner valued at $275,000 (the average assessed value in Spencer is $187,392), the net impact of these changes is roughly $8 per month, or less than $2 per week.
In recent years, the Town has significantly invested in staff as well as critical community facilities and equipment. The proposed FY26 budget generally maintains staffing levels and funds some positions for a full year that were only funded for a partial year in FY25. One full-time Police position is recommended to be frozen for FY26.
Although the Town undertook a classification and compensation study in FY25, the recommendation is to delay implementation of the study’s results until revenues grow through the expected tax base expansion over the next few years. Other key recommendations include:
- Adjusting the Code Enforcement position in Police to a sworn Law Enforcement position, to allow cross-training, more hours of service, and flexibility in response needs.
- Reclassifying an existing Police Corporal position to Sergeant, to improve overnight Police staffing and supervision from 50 percent to 100 percent.
- Fully funding a new recreation position that was added for the last quarter of FY25, to activate park facilities with programming and events.
- Continuing support of local tourism and events, including marketing support for the North Carolina Transportation Museum and sponsorship of Spencer’s Winterfest.
- Continuing a risk-reduction and policy update/training platform for Fire and Police staff, which may allow future reductions in liability insurance rates.
The proposed budget includes an appropriation of approximately $298,915 from the General Fund Balance, a significant decrease from the prior year. $18,400 of this amount is to cover the minimal amount of capital requests included in the budget recommendation.
Several items requested by departments were not able to be included in the recommended budget. In general, there are over $322,000 of requested expenditures that were not included in the recommended budget, with an additional $131,00 of unfunded capital requests.
A public hearing on the budget is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, June 5 (pre-Agenda meeting) at Spencer Town Hall. Interested individuals can view the Town Manager’s recommended budget at spencernc.gov and in print in the Town Hall lobby.