City Manager Tai Jaiyeoba sent a memo to city councilmembers on Tuesday, June 21 stating that the number of new employees in the budget was 37, not 61 as had been reported.

However, the “City Manager’s Budget Message” in the “Recommended Budget 2022-2023” presented to the City Council in May under “Positions Additions (New and Mid-Year) has the total of “69.25.”  At the June 14 work session, the revised budget presented by Jaiyeoba removed eight new Greensboro Police Department positions and the $960,000 to fund those positions from the GPD budget.

The revision to the recommended budget to lower the proposed tax increase by 3 cents from 66.25 to 63.25 does not list any other new positions being removed from the recommended budget.

The other adjustments include increasing the estimated amount of revenue from sales tax by $4 million and increasing the amount of estimated revenue from the electric utility sales tax by $700,000.  It also includes using American Rescue Plan funds to pay $6 million for facility maintenance and gateway corridors, reducing the amount of money set aside for economic development payments by $2.5 million and reducing the amount of the general fund transfer to the transit fund by $500,000.

None of those revisions involve reducing the number of positions added to the 2022-2023 budget.

The total of 69.25 on page 7 of the manager’s recommended budget, reduced by the eight positions in the Police Department in the revised budget, leaves a total of 61.25.

In the memo, Jaiyeoba does not explain how the 61.25 positions in his budget message was reduced to 37.

Jaiyeoba does state that “individual councilmembers have expressed interest in adding allocations to the 22-23 budget for three additional organizations – Forge Greensboro, Greensboro Business League and Historic Magnolia House.”

Jaiyeoba notes that allocations for these organizations are not included in the recommended budget and would have to be added.

So, if the City Council decides to add more allocations to nonprofit organizations in the budget, the total may be higher than the $688 million in the current proposed budget ordinance.