Clarksville Mayor Joe Pitts Unveils FY 2025-26 Budget Targeting the City’s Most Pressing Needs

Clarksville, TN – A proposed City of Clarksville budget for Fiscal Year 2025-26, sent by Clarksville Mayor Joe Pitts for close review beginning this week by the City Council, addresses the key priorities of:

1.) Retaining and recruiting the number of City employees required to deliver vital services

2.) Decisively attacking problems with neighborhood flooding that have plagued some areas of Clarksville for decades, and,

3.) Keeping up with unsolicited growth in a city that has rapidly become one of the nation’s most popular places of residency.

The new City budget as proposed includes $170,717,506 for the City general fund. 

“Every year I begin by commending our City departments and their leaders for their work, during what can only be described as a year of challenge and opportunity. This year is no different,” Mayor Pitts said in a budget memorandum to the City Council. 

“The growth of our city’s population is driving every aspect of our budget, and we are successfully transforming our process from budget-driven goals, to goals-driven budgeting.  It is a subtle change, but will be evident during the committee meetings and subsequent workshops. 

“I am proud of how our employees in every City department work together, to respond to our citizens’ everyday needs – especially how they perform in a crisis or extreme challenge. They give us much to be proud of, and are to be commended for their efforts. That is why we are proposing a 2.5% general wage increase for all eligible employees as a centerpiece of our budget proposal,” Mayor Pitts said.

This proposed budget document reflects the usual expert analysis and meticulous record-keeping of the City’s Finance & Revenue Department, led by Laurie Matta, Chief Financial Officer (CFO), and Christen Wilcox, Deputy CFO. This year, however, is bittersweet, as Ms. Matta has accepted a position in Colorado and will be assisting the City of Clarksville through the budget process as she prepares for departure.

“We are in a great position with Ms. Wilcox serving as Interim CFO.  She came to the City of Clarksville almost five years ago, and has been instrumental in helping improve the accounting functions of some of our largest City General departments, as well as providing great leadership development potential for the people she supervises,” Mayor Pitts said. 

Last year, the Finance & Revenue Department was awarded the Excellence in Finance Award by the Government Municipal Finance Officials organization for the 10th consecutive year, demonstrating consistency.

An innovation that the Council will be asked to approve is the creation of a special revenue fund to allow fines and funds collected from liens placed on neglected properties by the Building and Codes Department to flow back to the Department for additional work to support the Restoring  Clarksville Initiative, which is aimed at cleaning up abandoned properties and improving the overall appearance of Clarksville neighborhoods. 

Here are a few highlights of this proposed budget, as detailed by Mayor Pitts in the annual budget memo:

1. Always at the top of everyone’s mind is the City property tax rate of $.88 per $100 assessed value. We are proposing a property tax increase of 15 cents this year to $1.03 per $100 assessed value.  Growth, inflation, and the critical need to expand services are all driving the increase. 

For those impacted by the recent flooding, the Montgomery County Assessor of Property has the authority to reduce their property tax liability.  The Montgomery County Trustee also implements the state property tax freeze and relief programs for low-income or disabled residents.  All of these resources will lessen the impact of the proposed tax increase.

1. As mentioned we are proposing a 2.5% general wage increase for city employees. This increase is more in line with the pre-pandemic-era increases we have seen in the past four years. One important change is the unavoidable increase to health insurance premiums for our employees, and some positive changes to our health pharmacy plans. We continue to monitor the trends in our health claims and this increase is necessary to keep our self-insured fund viable.  
2. The bulk of our new hires are primarily in our Police and Fire Rescue departments.  There are some other new positions being added to strengthen and enhance our current capabilities or add much-needed capacity in Building and Codes, Parks and Recreation, and Building & Facilities Maintenance departments.
3. Our capital projects will be throttled back next year.  We will focus on completing more of the Transportation 2020+ projects and the Rossview Athletic Complex Phase 1.  We will make some necessary repairs to existing buildings, but we will not launch any new projects until the national and state economies settle.
4. Storm Water drainage is a priority for the city during fiscal year 2026 and beyond. We are looking at several changes to our approach this year.  
5. The Gas and Water Department will be hiring a consultant to create a Storm Water Utility.  Upon creating and enacting that utility, the Storm Water Utility will take the lead in managing our storm water infrastructure that is currently under our Street Department.  The Gas and Water Department is a better fit for this type of implementation.
   1. We will revise our Building standards to reflect more-serious rainfalls we have received over the past 12 months.  There will be code changes necessary to help limit the impact of heavy rains on homes and other residential and commercial structures.
   2. The Street Department is currently working with a consulting engineering firm to address three flood-prone areas of our city.  While we don’t know yet the official, and final pricetag for the targeted areas, we are committed to getting this right, and are prepared to come back to the council for changes in our financing plan.
   3. Lauren Winters, City Grants Director and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)/Tennessee Emergency Management Agency (TEMA) liaison is working to make resources and information available to property owners, as well as the city in general, to lessen the impact of the heavy rains on neighborhoods.
6. The departure of our lead Project Manager in the Municipal Properties Department has given us the opportunity to restructure this important function of city government.  We will move Project Management/Municipal Properties to the Street Department, which will be a force multiplier in terms of having access to additional staff and expertise. 

Our budget planning priorities remain largely unchanged from Fiscal Year 2025. The priorities for this budget plan are as follows:

1. 1. 1. Improves Infrastructure, Alleviates Traffic issues, or Enhances mobility

      2. Improves or Enhances initiatives that target Youth Development

      3. Strengthens Community and/or Regional Partnerships

      4. Fosters Downtown Development or Supports “Legacy Neighborhood” restoration

      5. Enhances or reinforces Public Safety

      6. Expands or Supports Citizen and Community Engagement

      7. Improves Operational Efficiency/Effectiveness or Bolsters Stakeholder/Customer Satisfaction

      8. Supports and Strengthens Workforce well-being and productivity

Property tax revenue comprises less than one-third of the revenue for our City. Sales & Use taxes and state-shared revenues account for the next two-largest segments of budget income. While sales and use taxes are steady, the state of Tennessee has projected slow-to-no growth of this important revenue stream for the city, having a dramatic impact on our operations.  

Finally and importantly, we have worked hard to present a budget proposal that is balanced, maintains a healthy, but realistic fund balance that meets our tried-and-true policy, invests in our workforce, and that truly reflects our best effort to serve and support our stakeholders.

While there are other needs that are not included in this budget, we recognize the need to plan accordingly to meet those needs with some creative opportunities for future funding.