Bowie staff outline $138.7 million all‑fund budget as council presses for tradeoffs

City finance staff presented a comprehensive expenditure overview during a budget work session after the council’s April 20 meeting, and several council members sounded alarm over a proposed increase in spending and the prospect of tax changes.

Interim Finance Director Bruce Miller told the council the city’s total budget across funds is $138.7 million, including a general fund of $98.5 million; equipment and replacement funds at about $3.6 million; capital projects at $11.7 million; and a water and sewer enterprise fund of $24.8 million. Miller said personnel services are the largest single category at $51.7 million (about 52% of the general fund). He described a proposed net increase of roughly $6.7 million (7.3%) over the prior fiscal year and flagged a proposed 20‑cent tax increase per $100 of assessed valuation included in the proposal the council is now reviewing.

Councilmembers used the session to press staff for more specific tradeoffs before a May 4 vote. Councilmember Wanda Rogers described the draft as “business as usual” and urged the council to ask, "Is this essential?" before approving further increases. Rogers and others asked staff to provide vacancy/attrition adjustments (to reflect typical hiring lags), to show net expenditures after fee and external funding offsets, and to supply scenarios showing the service impacts of lower tax increases (for example 15, 10, 5 and 0 cents per $100) so the council can weigh choices.

Staff described several major budget drivers during the discussion: the city manager/business operations budget shows a roughly $3.2–$3.3 million increase driven largely by a PEG‑funded fiber/network redundancy project; the police budget increases by about $2.4 million (salary and contract services were cited as drivers); and the water and sewer enterprise budget rises to $24.8 million (a nearly 28% increase) largely because of wastewater/water capital and operations. Planning and sustainability asked for large one‑time contractual investments—$400,000 for Bowie Town Center planning and roughly $150,000 for a watershed plan—while community services cited contract increases tied to parks and grounds and special events.

Council members emphasized two concurrent priorities: (1) more rigorous, program‑level analysis so council can identify specific services, positions or projects to delay/scale back, and (2) a sharper external funding/grants posture so the city can target county, state and federal programs rather than rely solely on property tax increases. Several council members asked staff to prioritize a short list of budget reductions and to distribute clearer, netted figures reflecting fee and grant offsets.

Next steps: staff will circulate vacancy and attrition analyses, produce net expenditure views that show external funding offsets, and present tax‑rate scenario modeling. The council scheduled two public budget listening sessions for April 21 (Southlake, 620 Fairmont Drive) and April 23 (Kenhill Center, 2614 Kenhill Drive); the budget adoption vote is set for May 4. Staff also proposed a short public survey to gather resident priorities ahead of final decisions.