County Prepares for Next Week’s Budget Workshops

Franklin County will hold two days of budget workshops next week.
The meetings, at the courthouse annex in Apalachicola, are scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. on Wednesday, July 23 and Thursday July 24. The public is encouraged to attend.
At Tuesday's county commission meeting, Clerk of Courts Marcia Johnson handed out thick budget notebooks to the commissioners. "The proposed budget has been developed in accordance with the guidelines you have generated over the past few months, and has been generated using the best available data provided by the state on its revenue sharing estimates.
"The board had indicated it did not want to raise taxes, and this year's budget does not raise taxes. This year's budget has a lower tax base, and a lower millage rate as submitted," she said. "The proposed budget by the county commission is fiscally responsible, but the public needs to be aware that while the county is providing a lower millage rate, it has no power over what other taxing authorities do.
"This year's budget was developed as a total package. The proposed budget reflects what has been turned in by the various departments and constitutional offices keeping your directives in mind," she said.
"This year's budget represents a concerted effort by the finance office to present to the board, and the public, all of the funds the board is responsible for. Some of these funds have received various amounts of revenue through the years, and the board needs to provide direction on the utilization of funds."
She used as an example the roughly $880,000 in capital outlay money that has accumulated for county offices. "The board needs to decide relatively shortly at a county commission meeting how those funds will be spent," Johnson said. "The board had been accumulating finds received from state pari-mutual wagering to pay off the jail bonds. The funds were greater than the remaining debt, so the bonds were paid off and over $500,000 will be transferred into the county paving program for the new year.
Johnson said the commissioners had budgeted more road paving money than is required by for the Alligator Point grant match. "The county paving fund now has approximately $4 million," she said. "The board needs to develop a road paving program to utilize those funds."