It will be at least two months into the fiscal year before the city of Brundidge is operating under a new budget.

There is no law requiring city’s to have an updated budget before Oct. 1, the start of the fiscal year, and Brundidge met for the first time Monday to discuss this year’s budget.

With one city council seat undecided until Oct. 7’s runoff, council members decided to wait until after elections to begin budgeting, passing a resolution allowing the city to operate based on last year’s budget.

City Manager Britt Thomas said this isn’t the first time Brundidge has held off on budget planning.

As the council delves into the process, they will have several key decisions to make—what to do with the library, whether to raise garbage fees and how much to appropriate to local agencies.

With a $150,000 grant awarded last year to the Brundidge Library, the city will have to decide how much expansion they want to put into the project, and ultimately, how much funding they will want to pay in.

And with garbage fees on the rise for the city, the council will have to decide whether to pass that amount onto its customers. Thomas said the amount is $1.40 per customer, which would make garbage bills $11.40 if that’s what the council decides to do.

Also this year, an additional $22,200 total has been requested by local organizations, like East Central Mental Health and the Troy Pike Cultural Arts Center.

The budget will be $10.1 million if passed as is, with some $416,000 surplus revenues.

“As we always have, we’re going to budget expenses a little higher than we think and revenues a little less thank what we think we will have,” Thomas said.