Budget

When Mayor Benjamin took office, Columbia was suffering from record shortfalls and had resorted to furloughing city employees in order to make ends meet. Today, thanks to Mayor Benjamin’s leadership, we’ve gone from debt to surplus, saved millions of tax payer dollars by refinancing old bonds and eliminating unnecessary vacancies, improved our credit rating twice and three times received the Government Government Finance Officers Association’s Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting.

Furthermore we’ve raised salaries for our city employees and, while some are struggling for revenue, we’ve actually cut taxes.

We’ve set a new standard for fiscal discipline and accountability and, more importantly, we’ve done it without cutting services.

Mayor Benjamin is committed not only to continuing this remarkable transformation but to also find new way to improve efficiency by leveraging new technologies, maximizing economic growth and closing the donut holes on our tax map through aggressive annexation.