More on the county budget...
This comes from Chris Crepps, from the county's finance office. He explained some facets of the budget for me:
"The County has several operating "funds" that serve certain purposes.
Each fund operates almost like a separate entity. Our main fund is the
BUDGETED GENERAL FUND. It is this fund where we focus our
attention during budget because this fund includes the revenues collected
from the 58 cent property tax rate.
(I'd be glad to share a copy of our annual financial report if you want to review more details on all funds. Within the annual financial report, the "Management's Discussion and Analysis" and "Notes to Financial Statements" provide a lot of good
information that you may find useful. A copy of the annual financial report is also at the Cleveland County Memorial Library in Shelby.)
The total adopted budget for the current fiscal year in the County's Budgeted General Fund was almost $57.1 million. Including our projections for a 3% cost-of-living and increases in health insurance, the requested expenditures from next year's budget amount to $61.6 million.
From the spreadsheet I shared with you, all County departments are asking for $3,622,176 from the County's Budgeted General Fund. This figure does not include the 3% cost-of-living adjustment to all employees that the Commissioners are seeking. Further, the figure does not include any estimated increases in health insurance costs. Together, these additional items would cost approximately $900,000. In summary, we are faced with $4,500,000 in additional requested expenditures. However, we anticipate only about $1,500,000 to $1,600,000 in additional revenues in the next fiscal year (July 1 to June 30).
The County
Commissioners do not want to raise property tax rates. The County Manager, David Dear, will do all he can to limit the requested increases in expenditures without asking for an increase in the County's property tax rates.