“We really didn't have enough revenues to cover that,” Brown said this afternoon.
In his budget message Brown will tell the board, “This year this board decided to move forward with the needed replacement of Manning Elementary School in Roanoke Rapids. The total projected cost of the school replacement will be $19.2 million.
“Unfortunately, the debt service required to finance a project of this magnitude could not be absorbed within the current revenue projections. The average annual payment for this project will be $1.5 million over 15 years. To cover the debt service for this payment, property taxes will need to be increased by five cents. This increase is solely to cover the school debt and will be retired once the debt is completed.”
Board Chairman Vernon Bryant said this afternoon, “Certainly, we look forward to his budget presentation on Monday. It looks like we have to do some type of increase.”
(As required by law, the budget will be available for public inspection in the Clerk to the Board's office and in all five county public libraries for the required 10 days before the public hearing. The public hearing will be held on June 6 at 9:30 a.m. in the board of commissioners room at the Historic Courthouse in Halifax with a final adoption scheduled for June 20 at 9:30 a.m. After the Monday meeting, the proposed budget will be available on the county's website at www.halifaxnc.com)
Bryant said throughout the remainder of the budget process commissioners will have talking points for the public. “We will have real specific examples so they'll know what that increase means. As we move through the budget process the public will have a clear understanding of the budget and how it will affect them.”
Brown wrote in his budget message with the entire $40,757, 424 proposal, “there has been no county property tax increase in 13 years” and the last increase in fiscal year 2003-2004 “was essentially to again support school debt for the Enfield-Inborden School replacement project.”
For the upcoming fiscal year, Brown says in his message, “We have had to continue many reductions we have made over the years; despite this, we are able to maintain our service levels to meet the needs of our citizens. From 2008 to 2015, we have cut departmental budgets a total of $3.1 million, an amount that equates to over a 7 percent reduction from our average $37 million budget.
“With these cuts, our county departments are as lean as they can get without cutting valuable services and programs to citizens. The staff and I are cognizant of this and will continue to pursue cost-cutting measures and promote efficiencies.”
Intro
“Addressing this fiscal year 2016-2017 budget was a great challenge,” Brown said in the introduction to the document. “We are still slowly recovering from the recession and have experienced some growth; however, not enough growth that would allow us to address many of our delayed capital needs that occurred with the economic slowdown.”
Fortunately, he said, “with some small growth in our local economy, we were able to increase our fund balance to 23 percent, which was five percentage points up from last year. This recommended budget for fiscal year 2016-2017 was developed in the same successful revenue-based budgeting process we have used for the past 16 years.”
By use of this revenue-based budgeting process, “and through great fiscal responsibility, we, the county, have been able to maintain a healthy fund balance over the years which has allowed Halifax County to weather the economic downturn that began in 2008. Since that time, we have used $15,156,279 from fund balance to balance our budgets ... if we had not had a substantial fund balance at the start of the bad economy, this would have equated to a greater than 47 cents total property tax increase over this period based on the current tax rate.”
Brown noted with revenues not keeping pace with expenses, the use of fund balance has been needed to maintain an appropriate level of service to citizens.
Using revenue-based budgeting, he said, allows the county to have that option. “Our ability to sustain operations during the recession with no tax increase shows the importance of maintaining a healthy fund balance to not only assist us during emergencies, but to aid in maintaining services during hard times as well. This was clearly evident over these past nine years.”
Brown said the county has always had challenges in its ability to provide services to citizens while keeping the property tax rate low. “I commend our county departments for their ability to adapt to our ever-changing economic situation. Our staff remains committed to providing efficient and effective services to our citizens at the very lowest cost to all taxpayers. As I like to remind our citizens, we are taxpayers as well and wish to keep our tax burden low also.”
Sales tax revenue
Brown said the county has experienced growth in many areas of major revenue streams.
“Unfortunately this year our sales tax revenue decreased 2.1 percent as compared to fiscal year 2015-2016. Additionally our tax collection rate essentially matched last year's rate outside of one major taxpayer's tax value appeal. Our continued good collection rate is a credit to the staffs of the Tax Office, Legal and the Sheriffs Office. They all were able to essentially maintain the tax collection rate with their diligent efforts and by establishing expanded payment plans to aid citizens in being able to pay owed amounts.
“Considering the fact that Halifax County is a Tier 1 County along with the economic challenges we face, this is truly an amazing feat and I offer my heartfelt thanks for the jobs these departments do. Also, despite our Tier 1 status, we continue to have positive motion in our economic development efforts. I applaud the board of commissioners' forward-thinking and proactive approach in aligning the county to create well-paying jobs in the future as evidenced by the upcoming opening of Klausner Lumber with 350 jobs.”
Reserves
Brown notes the county's financial reserves remain well above the 8 percent level required by the Local Government Commission.
“Though getting better, our current economy continues to be a crisis situation for Halifax County and its residents,” Brown wrote of reserves. “With our cash reserves, this budget allocates $2,502,546 total dollars from fund balance in order to maintain critical capital needs and services required of the county and to compensate for our lack of revenues. This use of fund balance is in addition to maintaining the cuts and reductions made by our departments over the last seven fiscal years.”
Despite the use of fund balance, the county's projected reserves will be at 17 percent of its operation budget. “Well above the level required by the Local Government Commission and will still allow the county to have fiscal stability and allow for an adequate response to any emergencies that could occur during the year in the county.”
Funding
This budget provides an employee bonus of $500 for full-time employees. It continues to provide a competitive benefits package which includes 100 percent paid premiums for health coverage for each full-time employee who participates in the county's wellness program.
This budget also maintains the longevity program.
The budget continues a hiring freeze, previous staff reductions and travel restrictions, which will remain in effect throughout this budget year.
The budget essentially matches Average Daily Membership funding to each of the graded school systems as compared to the current fiscal year.
The budget includes money to support economic development and contingency operations.
The budget continues to require employees to use county vehicles, when available, for travel, which Brown noted amounts to a savings of an estimated 70 percent in travel costs.
The budget funds critical capital outlay for county departments.
The budget addresses additional capital needs for four educational institutions in the amount of $1,111,100.
Future concerns
“This proposed budget shows the county's ability to provide excellent services to its citizens,” Brown wrote. “However, this budget only addresses items of which we, the county, have full control. With continuing budget challenges facing the federal and state governments, there is a greater potential for additional adaptations to which Halifax County would need to react.
“Knowing this, I continue to have concerns about more unfunded mandates being passed down from these governmental entities. We diligently continue to work with the North Carolina Association of County Commissioners in communicating our concerns to both our state and federal legislators to ensure they are aware of the potential implications of their decisions on our county.
“Our citizens get a great return on their tax investment in Halifax County. Compared to all 100 counties in the state of North Carolina, we still rank in the top 25 percent of counties with the lowest citizen tax burden. That is a feat of which we all can be proud, especially considering we are a Tier 1 County.”
