The Marion Board of Aldermen heard no objections or comments on Monday during a public hearing on the town’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2024. The town plans to spend about $6.4 million in the upcoming fiscal year, which starts Oct. 1, with about $2.3 million going to support the town itself.

Mayor Larry Gill said the budget calls for a total millage of 36.36, which is unchanged from the current fiscal year. Of that, 33.46 mills, equal to about $463,000, will go to the general fund, 1.45 mills, which is about $21,650, will go to the fire department and 1.45 mills will go toward waste management.

The Board of Aldermen this fiscal year moved to increase what the town was charging for garbage service to match what the town was paying Waste Pro, a move that Marion officials said was both fiscally responsible and necessary to comply with state law. That increase freed up some funding that had been going to subsidize solid waste collection services.

“We were able to take half of what we had going to waste management and put it toward the general fund,” Gill said.

This year’s budget includes funding for two new vehicles for Marion Police Department, one new vehicle for the water department and pay raises for multiple town employees. Gill said the city clerks, maintenance supervisor, full-time and part-time police officers all received a bump in pay.

Gill said aldermen wanted to incorporate raises into the upcoming budget, and a committee put together to study town employees’ pay recommended even higher raises on top of that. The salaries still aren’t where they probably need to be, he said, but it is a good start.

“They think that we need to pay our people even more than what we proposed, every one of them,” he said. “But it’s only a certain amount of work you can do with this budget.”

Also in this year’s budget is funding to add an additional full-time police officer, which would give MPD three full-time spots.

As with the prior year, the majority of Marion’s FY24 budget is made up of grant funds. The town is carrying over a $3.4 million grant from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to build a new freshwater treatment facility on the north side of town. The Corps is wrapping up an environmental study, which must be completed before the project can proceed.

Marion is also set to receive $600,000 as part of a two-for-one state matching grant program for American Rescue Plan Act funds. The town put up $300,000 of its ARPA allocation to be matched, with the intention of spending the money on sewer upgrades.

Although Marion residents won’t see their taxes increase, balancing the budget does come at a cost, Gill said. Plans for a new town hall to meet the needs of the growing municipality will have to be put on hold.

Looking at the numbers, a bond issue to pay for the new construction would cost about $100,000 in debt service each year. Currently, one mill in Marion brings in about $15,000, so the town would need to come up with roughly six mills, through cutting costs, increasing taxes or both, to cover the cost.

That’s not something the town administration is prepared to do this year, Gill said. However, he said, the town plans to continue looking for grants and other sources of funding that could be used for the town hall construction or other projects in Marion.