The Henderson City Council voted unanimously to adopt the FY 2026-27 budget at a special called meeting on Wednesday afternoon.
The meeting lasted about 35 minutes, during which Finance Director Joey Fuqua shared with Council that he and staff had identified an additional $794,000 in savings.
Calling that amount “a pretty good chunk of money,” Fuqua said those savings will be achieved by reducing from 25 percent to 17.1 percent a cushion from the retirement line.
Interim City Manager Kendrick Vann reassured Council that the city is in good financial stead as far as the reserve funds go – the Local Government Commission recommends that municipalities maintain at least an 8 percent fund balance and Henderson’s sits right at 25 percent.
Fuqua said the $5 million earmarked from fund balance in the proposed budget has dropped to roughly $3.4 million because of the additional savings that staff and department heads had found.
Council member Lamont Noel made a motion to adopt the budget, which was seconded by Council member Sam Seifert.
Before the vote was taken, however, there was discussion about returning the position of the mayor’s assistant to the budget. It had been the only position cut, and Mayor Melissa Elliott said, “it seems to me to be very targeted.”
In making a motion to restore the position, Council member Michael Venable said, “If we haven’t cut anybody else’s position, I want to make a motion that we put the mayor’s assistant back in place.”
Council members Geraldine Champion, Catherine “Kitty” Gill, Tami Walker and Venable voted yes; Council members Garry Daeke, Kenia Gómez-Jimenez, Noel and Seifert voted no; Elliott cast the tie-breaking vote to restore the position to the budget, which adds $22,000 to the bottom line.
