Contents of Budget Book
Overview Fund level summaries of revenues and expenditures and the impact on reserves with a
comparison to the FY 2025 revised budget.
Revenues Projections for each revenue type as well as comparisons with prior years have been
provided.
Fees/Charges Suggested schedule of fees and charges for FY 2026 with a comparison to current year
fees.
Expenditures A summary level overview of the total expenditures as well as comparisons with prior
years.
Debt A summary of future debt obligations including revenue bonds and capital leases.
Personnel Information on historical personnel levels as well as the requested and recommended
staffing changes.
Capital An overview of FY 2026 recommended projects and five-year plans for the various
capital project funds.
Details
Function, goals, and measures for each department. High level department summaries
of requested and recommended expenditures, including historical data grouped by
personnel costs and other operating costs. Summaries are followed by line item detail
for non-personnel accounts.
Revenues
• Property taxes remain the General Fund’s largest source of revenue. This budget anticipates the
millage rate will remain unchanged at 8.99 mills for the nineteenth consecutive year. A projected 1%
increase in the tax digest is predicted.
• Revenues in the Hotel/Motel Fund are collected through a tax imposed on each room night occupied
in Smyrna hotels and motels. After a brief dip during FY 2021, revenues start to increase each year
until they leveled out in FY 2024. However, FY 2025 revenues have come in higher than FY 2024. As
recreational and business travel are expected to remain strong, revenues are projected to increase
slightly over FY 2025 collections. However, with large expenditures expected for City’s upcoming
birthday celebration, a $509K use of cash reserves is budgeted.
• Emergency 911 operations are funded primarily by fees collected from telecommunications providers.
Historically, those revenues have been supplemented by a transfer from the General Fund. For FY
2026, the transfer is budgeted at $755K (33% of total revenues).
• Utility revenues in the Water/Sewer Fund are based on customer demand. Through nine months, FY
2025 revenues are tracking slightly higher than budgeted. The FY 2026 revenue projection is 2%
higher than the FY 2025 Revised Budget. Built into this projection is an automatic pass-through of the
Cobb County-Marietta Water Authority’s annual increase in January.
• Revenues projected for the Storm Water CIP include a $0.07 increase effective January 2026. At that
time, the monthly storm water fee will increase from $3.80 to $3.87. Following more sizable fee
increases of $0.50 each in 2018 and 2020, smaller increases the last several years proved sufficient for
planned projects.
7