Aerial view of Wilmington

Wilmington’s Fiscal Year 2025 Operating Budget of $193.9 million and Water/Sewer/Stormwater Utility Budget of $90.1 million were adopted on Thursday, May 16, 2024, by Wilmington City Council.

Mayor Mike Purzycki thanked City Council for approving his final annual budget, which is a balanced budget as required by law, and one that will enable the City to maintain its programs and services at their current levels.

The FY2025 budget takes effect on July 1, 2024.

Read the supporting documents.

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Learn more about how the City budgets for expected revenues and expenditures. Visit this link to open the City's OpenGov Annual Operating Budget portal.

Factors influencing the composition of the operating budget include: 

  • Ambulance service. For decades, emergency ambulance service in Wilmington had been provided by third-party entities at no cost to the City. However, the latest provider, Trinity Health (associated with St. Francis Hospital), advised the City in 2023 that they could no longer afford to provide the service without a very substantial subsidy. After much negotiation and discussion, the City settled on a $3.8 million contract extension with Trinity Health that would provide ambulance transport through December 31, 2025 (halfway through FY 2026). The cost of the contract extension for FY 2025 is $1.9 million. The contract extension provides time for the City to plan for alternatives. The preferred outcome would be that Trinity’s recent outsourcing of its ambulance billing and collections to an experienced third-party will result in them requiring a much lower subsidy (or even no subsidy at all) from the City. But if that does not occur, the City will use the time leading up to the contract expiration to prepare and implement an ambulance transport service to be provided by the City’s Fire Department. 
  • Personnel costs which grew by $2.0 million as a result of the mid-FY 2024 implementation of the City’s compensation and classification study recommendations. The implementation of the study increased salaries and the number of anniversary steps for all bargaining units except the Police and Fire unions. Because of the compensation and classification study implementation, only the Police and Fire unions will receive Cost of Living Adjustments (COLAs) in FY 2025 as per their union labor contracts. Those COLAs and a one-time retention bonus payment for Police are in addition to the usual anniversary step increases. Altogether, the budget increase for police and fire sworn personnel is $5.0 million. 
  • Departmental staffing decreased by a net total of 12.75 full-time equivalents (FTE) with personnel savings in eight departments resulting in a savings of over $1.1 million. 
  • Regular overtime and Special Events overtime in the Police and Fire departments increased by a combined total of $950,000. Overtime in Fire was increased by $341,000 to better reflect prior year actual spending and to ensure minimum company staffing requirements will be met based on projected attrition trends. In Police, both overtime and Special Events overtime rose by $609,000. Major factors contributing to the combined increase include historically high levels of attrition coupled with the inability to attract enough qualified recruits for the Police Academy; contractual increases in compensation; and additional overtime incurred to provide security for the presidential re-election campaign headquarters located in downtown Wilmington. 
  • Motor vehicle costs account jumped by almost $1.1 million, driven by large price hikes in the cost of new cars, especially police vehicles, and the purchase of five ambulances for the Fire Department (three replacements and two additional). Also, fleet maintenance costs are up as the cost of parts and labor has risen dramatically over the last two years.
  • An increase in the cost of computer software of almost $557,000 to support a number of Department of Information Technologies initiatives and software license increases for both City-wide and specific departmental projects. 
  • Consultants, Engineering, and Transition costs increased by just over a net $435,000. Public Works added $120,000 to Consultants to perform operational desk audits, review and rewrite the Department’s job descriptions, assist in staff development, and provide grant writing support. In the Mayor’s Office, funding more than doubled for the Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) Foundation (from $75,000 to $200,000). Also in the Mayor’s Office, because FY 2025 is a mayoral election year, $75,000 in Transition Costs was added to the budget. 
  • Contribution costs for the State Pension Plan for Police and Fire personnel rose by over $1.3 million (or 27%). This increase was offset by a nearly equal reduction in the total actuarially required contribution cost for the City’s old pension plans. While the State grapples with a large unfunded liability in the Police and Fire pension plan, the City has experienced a dramatic drop in the unfunded liability of its pension plans, with two of five plans now fully funded. 
  • Funding of $100,000 was added to the Traffic Division of Public Works for a pilot program testing traffic calming devices in City neighborhoods. 
  • Employee healthcare costs are projected to decrease by over $1.1 million, or 6.7%. To stabilize healthcare costs and mitigate future risk, the City will no longer provide healthcare coverage to employees’ spouses who are eligible for subsidized medical coverage through their employers. 
  • The Neighborhood Stabilization Fund (NSF) and the Economic Strategic Fund (ESF) were strengthened through a transfer of $2.85 million from the Tax Stabilization Reserve. The NSF received $2.5 million, of which $1.5 million will be used to fund the Home Repair Program and $1.0 million will be granted to the Land Bank. The ESF received an infusion of $350,000 to be used exclusively for the Minority Business Development Program. 

Factors influencing the composition of the water/sewer/stormwater budget include: 

  • Personnel costs, which increased by almost $590,000 as a result of the mid-FY 2024 implementation of the City’s compensation and classification study recommendations. The implementation increased salaries and the number of anniversary steps for all bargaining units in the Water/Sewer Fund. 
  • Contracted Maintenance Services, which increased by over $1.5 million. Almost all the increase is in the contract fee to the vendor Jacobs (up $1.4 million) to operate and maintain the City's sewage treatment plant and help manage the City’s renewable energy bio-solids facility. 
  • Indirect Cost expenses to the Water/Sewer Fund, which rose by $1.2 million, reflecting the budgeted increases in FY 2025 of the essential supporting services provided to the Water/Sewer Fund’s utility functions by the General Fund. 
  • Repairs to equipment in the water system increased by over $1.0 million. About $850,000 was added for the replacement of pumps at the Brandywine Pumping Station and to cover increased costs of the systemwide pump and valve maintenance program. In addition, there was a 47% price hike (from $375,000 to $550,000) for Allied Control Systems for maintenance of the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system. 
  • Additional funding of $240,000 that has been added to the Consultants line to help the City comply with the EPA’s new lead and copper rule revisions and to prepare for the passage of pending EPA regulations regarding the testing, tracking, and removal of PFAS chemicals in the water supply and distribution systems. One particularly notable initiative that will be funded by the requested increase is the creation of an educational website and a public information officer to help residents and water customers regarding questions about how to properly test for lead in the pipes and plumbing connections of their homes and what to do if it is found. 
  • Engineering in the Water System Division increased $237,500 for engineering and design services for the small water mains replacement program and for metering improvements. 
  • A $203,000 increase in the Miscellaneous Supplies or Parts account in the Water System Division. This account supports a wide-ranging number of items and programs, the largest being the annual fire hydrant replacement program. 
  • Funding for the Finance Department’s Water Utility Assistance Program was increased $100,000 (from $250,000 to $350,000) to help Wilmington residents pay their delinquent water bills. 
  • Decreased legal fees, which dropped 50% (from $200,000 to $100,000) as the legal proceedings against New Castle County (wastewater treatment contract), Honeywell (breach of contract regarding the renewable energy bio-solids facility), and the Army Corps of Engineers (non-payment of storm water bills) have been settled. 
  • Total Debt Service, which decreased $371,584 based on the existing debt service schedule. Although there is a new bond issuance planned for FY 2025, it will be structured so that the first debt service payment would not occur until FY 2026. 
  • Based on a 5.8% increase to water and sewer rates and a 4.0% increase to stormwater rates agreed to by the Administration and City Council, the projected fiscal impact of the rate changes is an increase of $3.7 million in revenue to the Water/Sewer Fund in FY 2025. The typical residential customer in the City using 4,000 gallons of water per month will see an increase of $3.86 to his or her monthly bill.