Questions Plague Budget Recommendation
The Jefferson County Commission full body got their first look at the Budget Committee’s recommendations for the fiscal year 2015-2016 budget in their work session on Monday, June 8, 2015. Though the Historic Jefferson County Courthouse has been relatively full during the budgeting process,many County Department Heads and Jefferson County Mayor Palmieri were noticeably absent for the early week meeting.
Budget Committee Chair Scarlett rolled out the Budget Committee’s recommendation that included deep cuts in County departments and non profit organizations, as well as a combination of restructuring some debt, using some designated accounts and tapping into both hospital lease money and the hospital reserve fund to answer a multi million dollar deficit but did not include a property tax increase. At the request of some members of the Budget Committee, County Financial Adviser, Scott Gibson, was on hand to answer questions regarding the potential impact of tapping further into reserve funds to balance the budget. Gibson noted that since 2012, the General Fund has dropped around $1.5 million, Debt Service is less $3 million and the Hospital Reserve Fund has been tapped for around $2 million dollars.
He stated that in that same amount of time the County has incurred significant debt with building programs for schools, as well as the new EMS building and though those projects are assets for Jefferson County, they still must funded. Gibson also mentioned other potentially high dollar expenses, such as the more than $3 million dollar landfill closure debt, that has not been addressed. When asked where Jefferson County falls in line with other counties across the State, he place Jefferson County around mid line in regard to property tax. The Financial Adviser expressed his concern that Jefferson County reserve funds are trending downward and that could have impact on the County financial picture.
At the request of Commissioners, Jefferson County Finance Director Potts informed the Commission that to cover all use of reserve funds would require a 7.6 cent tax increase, which would realistically be an 8 cent increase, leaving around $40,000 extra in reserves. The Commission was also informed that it will have to address a nearly $130,00 deficit in the current year’s budget in the insurance line that will likely come from fund balance.
Other questions that will be before the Commission at their voting meeting include a Budget Committee recommendation regarding the Sales Tax allocation that currently goes to the schools. The Committee is recommending that the amount of sales tax going to the schools, currently just shy of $5 million dollars, remain at the current year’s amount and any future increase would go to the County for Commission allocation. Chairman Scarlett noted that the schools will not lose anything other than the growth, which might or might not be allocated to them depending on need. The Budget Chair also stated that the recommendations of the Budget Committee were the result of much hard work and significant sacrifice on the part of many County departments and non profits. Additionally, there will be several year end general housekeeping budget amendments that will be presented for approval.
Director Potts will also bring four resolutions for surplus property. Commissioner David Seal presented a report on tourism in Jefferson County that addressed what the Commissioner stated as misconceptions in a previous presentation on tourism from a speaker brought before the Commission by the Jefferson County Chamber of Commerce.
