How the General Fund was fully funded without a tax increase:

How the General Fund was fully funded without a tax increase:

Salary and Wages have increased 14%

Benefit costs have increased 12.5%

There is a $232,000 in reserve for 86 county employees that are not enrolled in the county’s insurance program. An amendment pool was created in the amount of $30,000. This created savings of $202,000 for the general fund. (This saving was brought to the attention of the Budget Committee by County Finance Director Paul Long.)

$190,000 was moved from debt service to the general fund to cover the cost of new ambulance stations. Debt Service was overfunded by $600,000 before the funds were moved. This leaves Debt Service overfunded by approximately $400,000. (This was brought to the attention of the Budget Committee by Nancy Allen, County Executive.)

$460,000 was moved from the general fund ending balance to the general fund. This is money that is left over from previous year’s budgets that is held in reserve. This is one time money that is not available every year. Motions to move $1,200,000 and $600,000 from the ending balance failed previously. (The reserve is held for the purpose of bond ratings. This is the county’s credit rating. A 5% reserve, $1,800,000, is recommended. A 10% reserve, $3,600,000, is considered very good. Our county government will have an expected reserve of approximately 17%, $6,689,685, at the end of the 1999-2000 fiscal year.)

$750,000 was moved from the development tax to the general fund to cover capital outlay. This would leave the development tax with an ending balance of $2,000,000. (Commissioner McAdoo made this suggestion.)

$700,000 extra money was "found" after Mr. Long looked at the money the county receives from the state to house prisoners in the local jail. This $700,000 was moved to the general fund. This move is what allowed the commissioners to FULLY fund the general fund without the $0.01 tax increase that passed through the Budget Committee. By my calculations, this would also reduce the amount needed from the ending balance to $164,908.*

The General Fund received a budget of $36,505,068 for the 1999-2000 fiscal year. This is an increase of $4,277,640 over the 1998-1999 fiscal year. This represents an increase of 13.27%.

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* Note: All of the above information came from notes that I made at the Budget Committee meeting. This was the meeting that set the budget numbers that would be sent to the full commission. The only information that did not come from that meeting was item number 7. This information was found on The Daily News Journal’s website.