BY MARK J. CRAWFORD
Telegraph Editor
STARKE— On Aug. 1, Clerk Denny Thompson presented the county commission a tentative budget of revenues and expenditures for the 2022-23 Fiscal Year, which begins on Oct. 1.
This version of the budget did not include grants as their presence can skew the amount of the budget, when they are really passthrough dollars — money received to be expended for a specific purpose.
Neither was the budget balanced overall, something commissioners were given the month to think about before their budget workshop on Monday, Aug. 29, at 6 p.m.
Many department budgets were balanced, but commissioners must now decide to how to use county funds to balance the others.
Finance Director Dana LaFollette presented a spreadsheet that showed the county’s revenues, fund balances and deficits. More than $1 million must be made up in road department spending. Fines and forfeitures — which includes the sheriff’s office and jail — needs $8.1 million. Fire rescue is out of balance by nearly $2.86 million. Solid waste needs another $417,274.
Commissioners were asked to offer direction on how to balance these budgets by transferring revenue from the general fund, sales tax fund, fiscally constrained county fund or using fund balance, which staff has been advised to avoid.
The general fund should have a $6.6 million surplus of new revenue available. One-cent sales tax is anticipated to generate nearly $2.67 million. New fiscally constrained funding could provide another $424,919.
The $27.9 million projected fund balance at Sept. 30 of this year is misleading in that much of that money, such as gas tax revenue, must be used for specific purposes. While spending fund balance is not advisable, the general fund is expected to have a nearly $7.5 million fund balance at year’s end, while one-cent sales tax will have a balance of $3.4 million, and there will be nearly $1.8 million each in fiscally constrained and inmate housing revenue funds.
Money can be transferred from more than one source. For example, the road department has enough fund balance to cover its expenditures next year. Fines and forfeitures historically received a large transfer from both the general fund and sales tax revenue to cover law enforcement costs.
LaFollette also suggested the board budget its fund balance in each department as reserve for contingency. It doesn’t have to be spent, but it is more transparent to show what the county has available to spend.
Chief Deputy Clerk Rachel Rhoden agreed. She said she believes the past policy of not budgeting the reserves was to protect it from being spent, but that’s not advisable.
“This is an effort to show you everything. Here are all the cards,” she said.
Seeing that money in reserve shouldn’t ease concerns about raising additional revenue, however. New expenditures still exceed new revenue every year, and that is unsustainable, as auditors have pointed out numerous times.
The combined fund balance also includes nearly $5.5 million in American Rescue Plan Act funding. Although $500,000 has been pledged to the Concerned Citizens of Bradford County’s gym restoration project, the county commission has not earmarked the remainder despite talk of infrastructure to attract growth.
Special assessment replaces tax talk
Commissioners have rescinded an ordinance that would have placed a referendum on the ballot asking voters about imposing a new sales surtax to fund Bradford County Fire Rescue. While it would have provided an ongoing source of revenue to fund the agency, administration would have been difficult to say the least.
Although commissioners have previously decided special assessments for fire and/or EMS services are off the table because of public opposition, it is hard to ignore that other communities fund those services through assessments and not property taxes.
During a discussion on funding fire rescue, Chairman Chris Dougherty said the commission agreed to fill a vacant administrative position, but not how to fund it in the future.
“We got to pick one side or the other,” he said. “I’m not advocating for a bunch of fees and taxes in this county, but if we’re going to provide the services then we have to be able to pay for them.”
Adding unfunded costs is irresponsible, he said. At the same time, commissioners are responsible to provide for the safety of the public and their employees.
“If we don’t hurry up and consider something, we’re going to continue to be in this position,” he said.
Attorney Will Sexton said that during the exit interview, the county’s outgoing auditor said Bradford County needs a fire assessment.
“He acknowledged, for the third time, a lack of funding to offset the cost of that department,” Sexton said.
“I don’t think from staff’s perspective you’ll find any resistance whatsoever to continuing down that road or the franchise fee,” Sexton said. “In the time since we’ve discussed the franchise fee, Clay Electric has raised its rates, and Union County has imposed a franchise fee on Clay Electric. And yet here we sit, having done the legwork without any revenue to show for it.”
He added they are ready to put those options back on the table when the board is ready.
Dougherty said surrounding counties have lower property tax rates because they use special assessments and franchise fees to pay for services.
Commissioner Diane Andrews agreed the only answer to funding fire rescue is the assessment.
Dougherty said in talking to commissioners from other counties, he knows they had to make a tough decision. They are in a better place for it, he said, because they were able to rollback property taxes.
Unavoidable health insurance increase
Avmed hit the county with a substantial health insurance increase because of the extraordinary number of claims filed over the past year.
The original cost increase was 26%. The clerk’s office talked the carrier down to around 20%. Given the timeline for the budget and open enrollment, the county had to accept the high renewal cost, but will open discussions later with other providers.
