ASHLAND — Ashland’s finance director presented a “draft” 2025 tax budget on Tuesday that showed more revenue than expenditures.
“This is not the final appropriations and this doesn’t authorize expenditures. That comes later in the year,” said Larry Paxton, the city’s finance director.
Nevertheless, it gives city officials a road map before heading into the next year. The tax budget is based on cash reserves the finance division estimates the city will have at the end of this year and anticipated revenue and expenditures.
Paxton said he estimates revenue for the city to be around $77.6 million — this is money that comes in the form of income and property tax revenue, as well as levies for parks, streets and “inside millage” that pays for police and fire pension funds.
The finance director estimated expenditures to be around $73 million. This is everything the city pays for — wages for city employees, police and fire services, building maintenance.
Should Paxton’s estimations hold true, the spending plan would represent an 11% decrease from 2024 numbers.
This might be because Paxton estimates pulling in a little less in income tax revenue this year. City documents show $19,800,000 in Paxton’s draft plan. That’s a slight decrease from 2023 numbers, which reached $20.1 million.
Knowing exactly where the city will be in terms of income tax collection won’t be known until the middle of October though, Paxton said. That’s because tax filing extensions aren’t due until Oct. 15.
“So we’re working in July to guess, if you will, where our numbers are going to be,” he said.
Council president Steve Workman said he appreciates Paxton’s conservative approach.
“You’ve always underpromised and overdelivered,” Workman said. “So we do appreciate that.”
Paxton said Tuesday marked one of two meetings in July in regards to the city’s draft 2025 tax budget.
The tax budget now heads to the county’s budget commission for review. An ordinance will then be voted on later this month, he said.
“And then we’ll go from there,” he said.
The city typically adopts its spending plan in February or March.