Thanks to multiple municipal projects set to unfold during the course of the next year, Good Hope will work with an annual budget for FY 2025 that far exceeds any in the growing city’s history.

At its most recent regular meeting, the Good Hope City Council approved $6,927,291 in expenditures for the newly-begun 2024-2025 fiscal year, which runs from Oct. 1 of this year through Sept. 30 of 2025.

That figure contrasts distinctly with the overall $4,570,000 the city spent during its just-concluded fiscal year, with the giant jump in spending matched by a commensurate leap in budgeted revenues. An array of state and federal grants totaling more than $3 million also are included in Good Hope’s new budget.

With those awards accounted for, the city expects to take in $7,080,903 in revenues for FY 2025; without them, that number falls to $3,357,403 — a figure that still slightly outpaces the $3,344,164 in revenues that Good Hope collected for 2023-2024. In all, project grants make up $3,723,500 of the city’s projected revenues for the fiscal year ahead.

The $3.72 million in budgeted grants all target projects aimed at building up the city’s infrastructure to accommodate retail and residential growth. Five separate projects have been funded via the grants and are expected to see activity in the upcoming year, including a major upgrade project at the Good Hope Waste Water Treatment Plant that will be supplemented by $2,367,000 in funds through the Alabama Department of Environmental Management.

Other grant-supported projects during the next 12 months include the construction of a multi-use storm shelter along County Road 437, near Beech Grove Road, as well as two separate sewer improvement projects and a state-assisted project that will install new sidewalks across portions of the city.

The city’s new budget also incorporates an across-the-board 5 percent cost-of-living pay raise for city employees, as well as a one-time supplement payment of $300 to each.

Good Hope’s local alcohol taxes and fees brought in $364,825 during the concluded fiscal year, and the city is making a conservative estimate for FY 2025 that anticipates $352,000 in alcohol-related revenues. That number could increase, said mayor Jerry Bartlett, if any of numerous restaurant and retail projects in current development open for business before the fiscal year ends next autumn.