Bowie City Councilors examined a budget amendment for year-end fiscal 2024-25 as the finance staff attempts to clean-up the records as the final bills come in estimates are made for any late invoices.
Finance Director Pamela Woods reviewed the lengthy document with the council on Oct. 14, noting it was long primarily because she had more line items to accommodate some different areas. Several of the new line items were connected to the $2.75 million bond obtained last year where all of it was not spent.
Wood said $680,000 was set aside for the Nelson Street repairs, the new ambulance has been ordered but did not arrive in the budget year with funds sitting there waiting for it.
“There are a lot of new line items because I wanted to separate bond items out, we also had some extra revenue such as sales tax and code enforcement going up, many offset by expenses,” Woods explained.

Woods said they are continuing to have trouble with credit card fees which required an additional $10,000.
“I talked to two other vendors today for processing the cards and I want to put it out for rebid to see if we can’t lower that cost for assessment. These charges are primarily for each transaction and each card has a different fee. I want to see one flat fee so we can budget to actually see what we are spending money on,” said the director.
Read the full story in the Thursday Bowie News.