Barrow finances still under pressure

Annual government audits are a good way for taxpayers to keep tabs on their local governments, but they are really just a snapshot of fiscal health. To really see what a government is doing, you have to look over a several year period and dig a little deeper than one year.

Here’s a brief rundown about some of the more interesting aspects of Barrow County’s finances:

• Between 2005 and 2011, Barrow government spending went up 28 percent, from $31.1 million to $40 million. But spending is down from a high of $42 million in 2008 when the recession hit and it was down last year from the previous year. The biggest growth in spending was between 2005 and 2008, the peak of the boom cycle.

• Between 2005 and 2010, the county’s population grew 17 percent.

• Just about every area of county government saw spending drop in 2011 from the year before. Only judicial, public works and debt service was up.

• Spending for culture and recreation has dropped significantly since 2005 from a high of $1.6 million to last year’s $884,400.

• Property tax revenues grew a whopping 48 percent between 2005 and 2011 due to the additional tax base and a higher tax rate last year. Without the 2010 tax hike of one mill, the county would have seen its property tax revenues shrink last year.

• One of Barrow’s problems is that despite a massive amount of commercial growth, its sales taxes have been flat. In 2011, sales taxes were just barely above what they were in 2005. Sales tax income peaked in 2006, fell to a low in 2008 and 2009, and have only been recovering slowly in the past two years.

• The fall in property values also hit the county budget. Assessed values were down in 2011 to around 2005 levels and are down 25 percent from the high in 2008. Some of that has been offset by a higher millage rate that has increased 14 percent since 2005.

• One of Barrow’s biggest weaknesses financially is a thin industrial tax base. Only six local industries have property tax values above $10 million. The largest is Anderson Merchandisers at $25.2 million followed by Johns Manville at $16.7 million and JEMC at $16 million. The county’s top 16 industries only account for 7.3 percent of the county total tax digest.

• One change between 2005 and 2011 in Barrow is that the county now has far more debt. Still, the bonded debt is only $752 per capita, far less than some other communities that really over reached during the boom years. Total debt is more than that, primarily from the Bear Creek Reservoir. That doesn’t include school system debt or individual city debt. All total among all those agencies, the county’s total debt is $195 million.

• From 2009 to 2010, total personal income in the county fell 30 percent.

• The county’s largest employer by far is the Barrow County School System with over 2,000 employees. That makes up nearly 16 percent of the county’s total employment. The largest private employer is Harrison Poultry with 945 employees.

• The gallons of fuel sold at the Barrow County Airport was the lowest in 2011 than it has been in over a decade.

So what’ the bottom line in the county’s finances?

A combination of spending cuts and a higher tax rate pulled the county out of its financial morass last year. But it has some big expenses looming and the tax digest may take another dive this year, two moves that will put more pressure on the current year’s spending.

Recent new commercial projects might help grow the county’s flat sales taxes and the huge decline in property values may be hitting the bottom.

For the long term, Barrow needs to find a way to be more successful with big industrial projects and do that without its customary tax give away plan that is currently little more than corporate welfare.

And while the county did cut spending last year, some of that was not sustainable. The major item was that the county under paid into its pension fund by $890,000.

Despite last year’s financial success, the pressure isn’t off Barrow’s finances and there is not real stability yet in either income or expenses.

It could be worse, but it could also be much better.

Mike Buffington is co-publisher of the Barrow Journal. He can be reached at mike@mainstreetnews.com.