Fiscal restraint salvages county’s FY2010 bottom line

Department managers and elected officials all spent less than their departments were budgeted.

The biggest budget savers were Roads & Fleet ($259,944 less), Barrow County Emergency Services ($182,188), the Sheriff’s Office ($130,795), the Clerk of Superior Court ($97,704), Parks and Recreation ($86,852), and E-911 ($78,038).
The only two areas over budget were the county attorney’s expenses ($119,624 over budget) and for utilities ($185,551 over).

To balance those two shortfalls, the Barrow County Board of Commissioners agreed to Kisaalita’s request for a budget amendment allowing her to transfer to those areas some of the unused funds from other departments.

The vote was 4-2, with commissioners Larry Joe Wilburn and Eva Elder voting no. They did not comment prior to the vote but said after the meeting that they wanted the final numbers in the FY2010 audit to reflect actual spending.

The fiscal restraint cut significantly reduced the pressure on the county’s reserves.

Kisaalita several months ago expressed concern that the pace of spending at that time could push down the operating fund’s reserves by $1.5 million.

However, she said Tuesday night that she now projects the fund balance to drop by only $353,000, bringing it to $4.3 million.

OTHER ACTION

Also Tuesday night, the board voted unanimously to Kisaalita’s request for the calling of a special election March 15, 2011 for a referendum on the extension of the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax.

The extension would be for six years from July 2012-June 2018. The projected collections are about $60 million.
On a third matter, the board voted unanimously to an accounting system change – to account for all grant revenues and expenditures in a “grant” fund rather than in the county’s General Fund.

For full coverage of the board’s Nov. 9 meeting, please see next week’s edition of the Barrow Journal.