What's in Bentonville's 2024 budget
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Illustration: Maura Losch/Axios
Bentonville's budget for next year is ready to go. Here are the highlights:
The big picture: The city expects about $79.28 million in expenses and $79.04 million in revenue from sources including taxes and permits. Bentonville plans to use another $2.23 million from impact fees, leaving a surplus of $1.98 million.
🧑💼 New staff: Bentonville will add 21 staff positions totaling $1.22 million in salaries and benefits. This includes six new people in parks and recreation, five for police and four for the library. Expansions are also planned for departments including finance, fire, planning and public-works maintenance.
💰 Raises: Staff will receive 3% merit raises. The budget also reflects recent moves to increase starting pay for police and firefighters.
🌳 Parks and recreation purchases: The parks budget includes the most new expenses at $4.89 million across about 60 projects and pieces of equipment, including:
- $1.2 million for sidewalk projects
- $701,520 on Memorial Park projects like work at the tennis courts and soccer fields
- $500,000 on the southwest Bentonville trail system
- $400,000 on bikeway projects
- $235,200 on equipment and upgrades at the community center
🚒 Fire Department purchases: The city plans about $3.1 million in equipment purchases for the Fire Department, like:
- $995,000 on an engine
- $800,000 on a new ambulance
🚓 Police Department purchases: Police officials have earmarked about $1.68 million for expenses, like:
- About $1.03 million in vehicles and related equipment like radios
- $24,000 on body cameras
- About $167,000 on network upgrades