The Greenfield City Council approved its 2025 budget and tax levy at the council’s October 23 meeting.
“The city’s growing, all of our departments have growth needs and employee needs and I feel like it went well,” Greenfield Mayor Guy Titus said of the budget process. “Obviously, I always wish we could do more for the employees and for the citizens.”
After a last-second adjustment increasing the budget’s general fund by just over $12,000, the final total for 2025 was $34,404,764 with a tax levy of $16,127,351 and a tax rate of 1.0924. Despite a budget increase of over $1 million and a levy increase of over $2 million from the city’s 2024 numbers, an increase in Greenfield’s assessed value caused the actual tax rate to drop by about .03.
Hancock County Libertarian Party Secretary Larry Silver presented a petition prior to the final budget vote calling for the City Council to reduce the General Fund by $10 million, which was initially signed by 28 people, including current County Council candidates Carol Pearson (D) and Luke Lomax (L), but was reduced to 20 after eight names were struck due to living outside of city limits. Titus said that he and the council noted Silver and the signees’ objection, but that the budget was already strained as is.
“He’s a tax-paying citizen, and I appreciate him coming in and expressing his feelings about the budget,” Titus said. “I think his request, you know, he had originally asked if we would cut some of the budget and it’s just hard to do. We operate on a thin line.”
There were public hearings on the budget at the previous two City Council meetings, with no members of the public speaking at either hearing.
Following Silver’s objection and presentation of his petition, the council unanimously passed the budget.
Titus says that how tight the city’s budget was is what surprised him most while he went through his first round of budget negotiations as mayor.
“There’s only so much money,” Titus said. “The state gives you a growth quotient of money that you’re allowed to work within, and it’s hard because our police and fire are critical services, they’re number one in my mind, and there’s never enough money to give those departments what they truly need.”
The budget will now go to the DLGF for certification and, if certified, will go into effect on January 1, 2025.
