City Council Gets First Look at FY2013 Budget

The Johns Creek City Council got its first look at the Fiscal Year 2013 budget on Monday at its work session.

The proposed $52 million balanced budget includes $45,534,051 in the general fund.

Finance Director Monte Vavra, who presented the budget, said that the council will have a chance to go over the budget again at its work session on Aug. 27, which will be followed by the first public hearing at the council's regular meeting that evening.

He said ideally the budget would be approved after a second public hearing during the council's Sept. 10 meeting, but that approval could be pushed to later in September if necessary.

Vavra said the overall goal of the budget was to "continue and improve existing services."

City Manager John Kachmar outlined some of the proposed budget's highlights, which includes operation of an arts festival, a volunteer police force, an economic development program, new programming at Shakerag Park and a neighborhood infrastructure program.

"Without increasing the budget, we're increasing services," he said. 

Referring to the balanced budget, Mayor Mike Bodker added, "We've never used more than we have."

(See the attached PDF for the proposed budget.)