The Columbia County Board of Commissioners approved the fiscal year 2025-2026 budget Tuesday night.
County Manager Scott Johnson told commissioners the staff was presenting a balanced budget, along with a healthy contingency. The general fund is budgeted for a little over $103 million. He said the county staff was instructed to do the budget without any increase due to Hurricane Helene and not knowing when the county would receive money back following the storm.
“We were actually able to bring in a budget that was less than last year’s budget in the general fund,” Johnson said. “We looked at all the revenues. We did increase that a little bit, but the overall increase to the budget is just a little over 3% from last year and in a growing county like Columbia County I’ll say that’s just, again a testament to us being conservative, this board being conservative.”
When creating the budget, the Board of Commissioners directed county staff to factor in a rollback of the millage rate, which will happen at a later date.
“But this budget is built around the idea that you will be lowering property taxes when that time comes so we are not spending beyond our means,” Johnson said.
Other items
Columbia County Fire Rescue presented checks to the Burn Foundation of America and Columbia County Community Connections for funds raised in the annual Boot Drive. Both organizations received checks for a little more than $38,000.
“It’s always my pleasure on behalf of the firefighters, county management and the board to present these two organizations (the checks),” said Jeremy Wallen.
Representatives from both organizations thanked the county for the funds and spoke about how much the funds help their organizations.
Commissioners approved resolution 25-17 authorizing the approval of the issuance of bonds for the School of Arts-Infused Learning, Inc. (SAIL).
“This is a pass through for us,” Johnson said. “We are not backing these bonds. We do not have an obligation to pay these bonds. There’s just a requirement in the law that the governing authority actually approve this. We have done these before. This is the second time we’ve done this for this particular school. Didn’t have any issues last time and don’t see any issues this time.”
Commissioners voted to disapprove a rezoning request for 4202 Washington Road from R-2 (Single Family Residential) to PRD (Planned Residential Development). The applicant was seeking to put cottages at this location. There was no discussion on this item.
Public comments
During public comment, two people, Howard Johnson and Karen Lawrence, both spoke about the library guidelines and asked commissioners to reconsider them. Johnson also spoke on the decision last month for Columbia County to leave the Greater Clarks Hill Region Library System and form its own, single county system.
