Keith Strange | The News
The Surry County Board of Commissioners spent Friday at their annual retreat, planning for next year’s budget. The board agreed to freeze any spending of the funds generated by the sale of the county’s home health care division.
ELKIN — Faced with the prospect of an ever-tighter budget next year, the Surry County Board of Commissioners have agreed to set aside for a rainy day the $2.5 million they made through the sale of the health department’s Home Health Care division last year.
The decision came as the board met for its annual retreat at the Klondike Cabins in Elkin Friday.
Much of the day was focused on money issues and how to fund needed capital improvements at the county’s schools on the eve of budget season.
“We get caught up in the federal government’s mandates, the state can’t print money and we have to balance our budget and I don’t see how we can do it,” lamented Commissioner R.F. “Buck” Golding.
Board chair Eddie Harris noted that the county is in an impossible predicament, having to put together a budget without knowing how much money the county will receive from the state.
“We aren’t going to know what the state budget looks like until probably the middle or end of June,” he said.
Golding predicted the county is on a financial downturn.
“We have so much debt service in our budget, and I’m afraid property devaluation is just around the corner, which will mean less revenue coming in,” he said. “We’re going to have to keep our eyes two or three years down the road.”
Currently, the county’s $70.5 million annual budget is balanced with $5.2 million borrowed from the fund balance, a move the board agreed is necessary, but unwelcome.
“If we continue to dip into our fund balance on top of the debt service we owe, we’re going to be taking a hit in future years,” said Commissioner Larry Phillips.
“We’re going to have to dip into fund balance if we don’t want to raise taxes, since we have to balance the budget,” Golding said.
Last year, commissioners voted to balance the budget through using the fund balance and keep the county’s tax rate at 58.2 cents per $100.
Assistant County Manager for Budget and Finance Betty Taylor said that without the $2.5 million in revenue from the home health sale, the county would be seeing a decrease in revenue.
Taylor noted that as of Jan. 31, the county had received $51.2 million in revenue, or about 71 percent of anticipated income.
The county has spent $40.1 million so far this fiscal year, or just over half of the expected $76.8 million in expenses, Taylor said.
But the board agreed that despite the county’s belt-tightening, dark clouds are on the financial horizon.
“The squeeze is coming,” Golding said. “We have to do something about having some rainy day funds that we don’t have spent before we get it to the bank.”
To that end, the board agreed to forego any additional debt next year and place the proceeds from the home health sale in the bank.
“I don’t see a whole lot of change between where we’re going and where we’ve been,” Harris said. “If I had to pick a theme it would be ‘steady as she goes.’ This board, over the past few years, has had a policy of not taking on any more debt service and I’m inclined to stick with that policy.
“Everything we do needs, in my mind, to be done with existing revenue. In this year’s budget, we’re going to have to significantly reduce the amount of money we take from fund balance to balance the budget,” he added.
Reach Keith Strange at kstrange@civitasmedia.com or 719-1929.
1) If you look at the unemployment rate of Surry County over the past few years, it has not gone down anywhere near as fast as that of the region, state or nation. In fact, if my memory is correct the last numbers published showed and uptick in unemployment.
2) I haven't seen the official scorecard for the past couple of years, but if you add up the published number of job losses from employers leaving the market or downsizing and compare that to the number of publicized job-creation events, you will see a net loss of jobs in our market.
3) Elected officials like to boast of their business acumen. If we were running the County like a business, our Economic Development function would be held accountable like any other business holds its Sales and Marketing staff accountable: if the numbers are going up, they do more of what they are doing and get rewarded; when the numbers go down, something different is implemented that changes direction and that often includes bringing in different expertise.
4) We have a terrific job-training machine: Surry Community College. We have plenty of trained people willing to work right now. We have relatively low utility costs and plenty of water. We have relatively cheap land and real estate. We have plenty of available buildings requiring minimal improvements. We have city and county financial resources available to incentive relocation to the area. We have excellent access to major transportation arteries. We have relatively low property taxes. We have better than average public schools. And we have a multitude of interesting and affordable residential areas throughout the county. And our Economic Development team can't sell what we have to offer?
5) So exactly what are our Economic Development expenditures providing us? Looks like job security for the people doing it. They need measurable goals and the oversight to insure we get our money's worth. Or they need to move on. As they say in the the Human Resources Department of most employers, past performance is a good indicator of future success.
1) Hiring freeze, except when replacing essential jobs or positions created created by consolidating jobs.
2) Limit funding of outside agencies and groups to only those which have a board member appointed by the Board of Commissioners
3) Allocate education to local schools according to demonstrable results by the school in increasing parent and community involvement in those schools.
4) Force the three local school districts reduce administrative costs by consolidating their administrative functions to support the three elected boards of directors who retain policy control over their individual budgets and districts.
5) Raise property taxes to reflect the drop in recent property values.
6) Quadruple the Economic Development Budget, send Todd Tucker packing, and hire an outside firm with performance incentives to produce or else.
7) Cut the Animal Control budget except for on-the-street control officers and those involved in shipping animals to outplacement groups. Keep animals no more than 5 days before transporting.
8) Require District Court to establish a formal schedule of cases at specific times so we don't have half the sheriffs of Surry County standing around doing nothing while supporting the inefficiencies of attorneys and judges.
9) Increase county fees to cover full cost for services rendered to individual citizens. Example, building permits, inspections.
10) Eliminate the Planning Department and Planning Board. They do nothing but consume county dollars while impeding growth and development. Issue building permits and collect fees with a vending machine in the lobby of the Government Center.
11) Rent the Permitting Center to any business willing to pay the fully amortized cost of the building.
12) Suspend stipends and benefits for County Commissioners and return those roles to "volunteer citizen" status as was originally structured and intended when Surry County was founded.