The City of Valdosta's budget and audited finances, drawn entirely from the city's own published documents — the FY2026 Approved Financial Plan and the FY2024 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report.
County seat of Lowndes CountyCouncil–Manager governmentIncorporated December 7, 1860Population 55,025 (FY2024)
Total budget, all funds (Total Uses)
$139,023,945
FY2026 · Approved
Total Sources $135,823,010 — sources run $3,200,935 below uses.
General Fund budget (Total Uses)
$54,909,771
FY2026 · Approved
Total Sources $55,100,746; Operating Expenditures $50,046,430.
General Fund fund balance (GAAP)
$22,780,986
FY2024 · Audited
As of June 30, 2024.
Total governmental fund balances
$62,121,139
FY2024 · Audited
All governmental funds combined, June 30, 2024.
Total borrowed debt
$48,545,577
FY2024 · Audited
Revenue bonds, GEFA notes, and financed purchases only — pension and OPEB are not counted here. See the debt breakdown below.
Total long-term liabilities
$145,755,963
FY2024 · Audited
Includes net pension liability $61,438,474 and OPEB liability $33,198,048, in addition to borrowed debt.
Total net position
$251,367,218
FY2024 · Audited
Unrestricted net position was a deficit of ($63,593,457).
Population
55,025
FY2024 · ACFR table
From the ACFR's demographic statistics table. See the notes below on the transmittal letter's different figure.
FY2026 Approved budget by fund type
Total Uses in the city's Approved Financial Plan for FY2026. The six fund types sum exactly to the all-funds total of $139,023,945.
Audited fund balances at June 30, 2024. The Federal COVID Relief Fund closed the year in deficit; the Sales Tax 2019 Fund — the SPLOST program — holds the largest single balance.
Borrowed debt outstanding at June 30, 2024 — bonds, notes, and financed purchases only. This is separate from the city's total long-term liabilities of $145,755,963, which additionally include the net pension liability ($61,438,474) and the OPEB liability ($33,198,048).
GEFA notes payable (Water/Sewer, 4 loans)$24,378,40850.2%
Water & Sewerage Revenue Refunding Bonds, Series 2020$22,264,06545.9%
Read these before citing any figure from this page — they affect what the numbers do and do not include.
Debt is as of June 30, 2024. It does not include the $69,330,000 Water and Sewer Revenue Bonds the city issued in December 2024 (maturing 2055), which are disclosed in the ACFR's subsequent-events note.
No FY2027 adopted figures are shown. The city's FY2027 budget packet is labeled “Proposed” by the city, so no FY2027 figure appears here as adopted. The FY2026 Approved budget is the latest adopted budget used.
Population figure. The ACFR's transmittal letter describes “some 57,500 residents” and 25% ten-year growth, but its own demographic statistics table reports 55,025 for FY2024 versus 58,994 in FY2015. This page uses the table figure (55,025).
Deficits. The Federal COVID Relief Fund ended FY2024 with a deficit fund balance of ($596,094), and total unrestricted net position was a deficit of ($63,593,457), driven principally by the pension and OPEB liabilities.
Debt total precision. The ACFR's MD&A states total debt as “$48.54 million”; the exact audited component sum used on this page is $48,545,577.
Sources
Every figure on this page comes from one of these two documents, published by the City of Valdosta.
FY2026 · Approved BudgetApproved Financial Plan For FY 2026City of Valdosta — the FY2026 Approved budget: all-funds and General Fund totals, and the budget by fund type.Open the PDF
FY2024 · ACFR (Audited)Annual Comprehensive Financial Report, For the Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 2024City of Valdosta, audited by Mauldin & Jenkins — fund balances, expenditures by function, debt, long-term liabilities, net position, and population.Open the PDF