Now that Habersham County’s $73.7 million dollar total budget has been presented, what is in it and what is not?
Habersham County Finance Director Tim Sims and his staff have been working for the past several months with the county manager, commissioners, tax assessors office, and department heads to get to a balanced fiscal year 2024 budget without requiring a millage rate increase.
At the end of March, all of the departments submitted and presented $42,674,969 in General Fund budget requests. The finance department has worked with department heads since that time and has cut $5,489,304 of those requests.
What’s in?
According to Sims, what is in this year’s budget are “only the 12 recommended personnel” and “the full year’s cost of the addition of the third Superior Court Judge.” Sims adds that with a new judge comes additional positions in the district attorney’s and public defender’s offices, as well as an additional Court Reporter.
Sims adds, there is a 3% merit increase “for employees based upon their annual review date, which is staggered throughout the year.” He adds that this is less than surrounding counties which budgeted 5% increases for their employees even after pay study adjustments were made last year.
The remaining increase in the General Fund budget is due to inflation. Sims states, “most of the other increases (which are normal operating items) are due to inflation and the ‘actual cost of goods and services’ that have increased.”
What’s out?
“There are no other new programs or items in the budget,” Sims says. “There were not really any new programs requested in the budget this year, only personnel and capital items.”
He explains that various items were reviewed and compared to current spending habits. Some of those items were cut based on historical figures.
“There was $2.8 million either cut or pushed out into future years in capital requests that would be funded by the General Fund.” He explains that most of those items were facility improvements or equipment that “could” wait another year or so to either do or purchase.
He also explains that some of the items “pushed out” were due to staff applying for grants to either fund the project or purchase the item. The county “will wait ’til next budget year to see if we get awarded any funds to help with these projects,” Sims adds.
Sims clarified that not all increases occurred in the General Fund.
“The SPLOST/Grant/Special Revenue/Enterprise Funds are self-supporting and are not funded by (property) taxes and have an estimated revenue stream that will support those funds.”
Budget breakdown
Here is a breakdown of the budgeted items:
Public hearing
The Habersham County Board of Commissioners will hold a second public hearing on the budget on Monday, June 26. Commissioners are expected to vote on the budget following that hearing.
The hearing is scheduled for 6 p.m. in the Habersham County Courthouse jury assembly room at 295 Llewellyn Street in Clarkesville.
A copy of the proposed budget may be viewed here or on the Habersham County website.
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