The Kannapolis City Council has approved the fiscal year 2022 budget, which spends $85.25 million and includes no property tax or utility fee increases.

The current tax rate will remain at 63 cents per $100 valuation, meaning that a home valued at $200,000 will pay $1,260 annually in property taxes for all city services. The majority of the city’s revenues come from two sources — property taxes (58% of the budget) and sales taxes (20%). The 2022 fiscal year starts today.

“Last year at this time, we halted many items in our budget as we adapted to the uncertainty of the pandemic. We purposefully delayed any new spending on projects and positions as we evaluated what impact the pandemic would have on our sales tax revenues, ” said Kannapolis City Manager Mike Legg. “This year’s budget includes several projects and initiatives that we need to move forward with and the addition of personnel as we work to recover from the pandemic and adjust to the growth of our city. We are very fortunate to have weathered 2021 and we anticipate growth continuing rapidly in 2022.”

The newly approved budget includes funds to continue all operations of the city, pay for inflationary increases for items the city needs to operate and pay debt on projects such as new fire stations, infrastructure improvements (water, sewer, sidewalks and streets) and the Atrium Health Ballpark.

Other notable items in the budget include:

• $1 million for construction of a skateboard park (first phase)
• $675,000 for the remodeling of Fire Stations No. 1 and No. 4
• $55,000 for a New Litter Clean-up Program. Funding for a volunteer coordinator and public awareness campaign
• $750,000 for phase one of Kannapolis Parkway/Highway 3 decorative streetlights and landscaping
• $275,000 for Bakers Creek Park Improvements: parking lot, lighting, fixing handicap spots, ADA accommodations for restrooms and concessions
• $275,000 for Village Park Phase four improvements: replacement of existing playground equipment
• $150,000 for the Midway (South Main Street) Corridor Plan
• $100,000 for a transitional housing/homeless shelter strategy
• $735,545 for Gem Theatre operating expenses
• $130,000 for Irish Buffalo Creek Greenway (Rogers Lake Road) parking lot
• $300,000 Lakeshore Corporate Park infrastructure at the site of the former Kannapolis Intimidators stadium
• $100,000 for street sweeper to maintain the newly constructed parking deck downtown at VIDA
• $575,000 for the replacement of 12 police vehicles
• $450,000 for the replacement of a 15-year-old breathing apparatus for the fire department
• $313,800 for the replacement of body-worn, in-car cameras and tasers for police (first of 5 annual payments to take place)
• 17 new positions in planning, parks and recreation, police, engineering, streets, water and sewer and general services
• $102,000 in annual debt service for the replacement of a 26-year-old fire engine
• $1.05 in annual debt service for the new VIDA public parking deck.