The city of Montgomery is proposing a tax rate for fiscal year 2022-23 of $0.4 per $100 valuation. This is the same tax rate council adopted during FY 2021-22. The tax rate is set to be adopted at a regular City Council meeting Sept. 13.

The city's budget is also slated to come before City Council members for a vote at the same meeting Sept. 13, interim City Administrator Dave McCorquodale said.

According to McCorquodale, when the city approached items under the budget, a determining factor was the growth Montgomery is expecting. McCorquodale said the city is aware of an estimated 1,200 homes that will be built and available over the next three to five years as well as homes yet to be documented.

“The growth we are going to be experiencing we have to be ready for,” McCorquodale said. “You can't really respond once it’s here as effectively as you can to planning in advance.”

In the upcoming fiscal year, McCorquodale said the city felt there was a need to add new police officers to the budget to provide enough officers for patrol. There is one vacant officer position, and two more are to be added under the new budget.

The city will also be adding a parks and recreation coordinator that will be partially funded by the city as well as the Montgomery Economic Development Corp. McCorquodale said this position is being created not only to help with events within the city, but specifically to increase activities in the parks.

“Whether it’s a summer type program for kids ... an art class for seniors ... we hope to get more people in the parks with some structured activities,” McCorquodale said.

Projects being funded under the proposed budget are to help infrastructure accommodate the growth, he said. McCorquodale said the city hopes to see improvement in Montgomery’s quality of life with grants regarding transportation.

“We always look to improve [on quality of life] even if we feel like we are doing great; we still want to get better,” McCorquodale said.