Phenix City mayor says city is in good financial position during State of City Address

PHENIX CITY, Ala. (WTVM) - Leaders in one east Alabama city are touting a big cash flow and adding more staff. The mayor of Phenix City gave his State of the City Address Thursday night.

He shared citywide updates on projects, funding and improvements over the past year.

Phenix City Mayor Eddie Lowe says they’re in a great position financially. With so much money reserved in case of emergencies, he’s looking forward to even better year financially for Phenix City.

Three years after COVID hit, Phenix City Mayor Eddie Lowe says the city is on track to recover financially.

“We’re doing great. You know, again, things can change,” said Mayor Lowe.

Between 2021 and 2022, he says the city’s revenue increased 30 percent, after gaining an additional 7-million dollars.

With so much money coming in, Mayor Lowe says the city has enough cash saved up, that it would survive if cash didn’t come in for 11 months.

“Of our total assets, 72 percent of that is cash, which is always a strong position to be in,” said Mayor Lowe.

One of the few challenges he mentioned across the city involve staffing.

“We’re still not there yet,” said Mayor Lowe. “As I stated, we have budgeted for 571 employees. On an average, we have 386.”

Of the positions the city has budgeted for 2023, they’ve allocated funding to hire 206 new public safety employees, 94 public works employees and more.

Over the past decade, nearly 14 million dollars has been spent to improve roads across the city and spent millions more to fund city-wide projects.

With so much great things going on, Phenix City resident Mel Long says he’s pleased with the progress made.

“One thing I like about this council, they do let you know what’s going on,” said Long. “I’ve been staying in Southside for a long time. So just seeing the growth in South Phenix City, I feel real good about that.”

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