The Columbia County Board of Commissioners approved the budget for fiscal year 2023-2024 during its meeting on Tuesday, June 20.
County Manager Scott Johnson told commissioners that the budget is balanced and the general fund is balanced at $95 million, which saw a 7.36% increase from the previous year.
“That does include a contingency of $2,254,847, which is 2.54% of our proposed expenditures,” Johnson said. “You will see the new personnel requests for the general fund include 20 positions and the new positions and other funds combined I believe total 19 new positions.”
For the 20 new positions, the cost will be $1,242,127, with the reclassifications/promotions costing $156,801 and allowance adjustments costing $5,736 for $1,404,664 total. The 19 new position requests in the other funds will be $1,091,635, with reclassifications costing $299,592 and allowance adjustments costing $12,648 for $1,403,875 total.
The county also saw in increase in the Local Option Sales Tax (LOST) revenues of 7.47%, Johnson said. There is also a 3% cost of living adjustment (COLA) included in the budget for eligible employees along with a transfer to the title ad valorem tax (TAVT
“There is a transfer here of $4.3 million to TAVT,” Jonson said. “This is a transfer that will allow us to do capital projects with general fund money, we would transfer that money out and then do the projects we needed to do.”
Johnson said the budget is balanced based on the expectation that the county will rollback the millage rate. He said the millage rate will be presented at hearings in July and then adopted either at the end of July or beginning of Augusta.
Overall, Johnson said the county has come up with a good budget while continuing to provide excellent service to residents.
“I took an opportunity to look at our benchmark counties and some of their general fund budgets,” Johnson said. “What I found was ours again to be the lowest among the benchmarks and in some cases our general fund is half of some other counties general fund. That could be a number of things, services provided, whatever the case may be. But I think Columbia County provides a great level of service for the money that we spend and then to recommend a tax decrease to balance this budget is just an extra bonus for our citizens.”
District 4 Commissioner Alison Couch said her main concern was the sales tax numbers decreasing because of the recession and inflation, so she was happy to see what number was used in the budget.
“We always use conservative numbers when we’re looking at our revenues,” Johnson said. “I still think sales tax in Columbia County will continue to do well. Historically we have not seen the dips the state has seen, but we certainly could. But I agree with you, a conservative revenue estimate was the right way to go.”
District 2 Commissioner Don Skinner complemented the work of all the people involved in getting the budget balanced.
“When you can balance your budget year over year and reduce the millage rate at the same time.”
The commissioners unanimously voted to approve resolution 23-28 to adopt the budget with commissioners Doug Duncan and Connie Melear absent.
Stephanie Hill is a staff writer covering Columbia County government for The Augusta Press. Reach her at stephanie@theaugustapress.com.
