The budget message offers a detailed explanation on the challenges the county faced in putting together this budget, as well as a look into how fund balance was used to stave off tax increases over the past 11 years.

“Addressing this … budget was a much greater challenge than previous years since we still had many of the delayed capital needs which were now to the point of being critical needs,” he said. “The county did not have the luxury of having a robust fund balance on which to depend, which aided in our ability to address needs in previous budget years.”

(The budget will be available for public inspection at the clerk's office in the Historic Courthouse in Halifax and all five public libraries for 10 days. It will be available for public inspection via the county's website. A public hearing will be held June 2 at 9:30 a.m., with final adoption scheduled June 16 at 9:30 a.m.)

Through great fiscal responsibility, Brown said, “We, the county, have been able to maintain a healthy fund balance which has allowed Halifax County to weather the economic downturn that began in 2008 through 2014. During this period we used $11,474,799 from the fund balance to balance our budgets. If we had not had a substantial fund balance at the start of this bad economy, this would have equated to a 35 cent total property tax increase over this period.”

Revenues not keeping pace

The county manager explained, however, with revenues not keeping pace with expenses, the use of fund balance was needed to maintain an appropriate level of service to citizens. “With our dwindling fund balance, this was not a viable option for fiscal year 2014-2015.”

Said Brown: “Halifax County has always had challenges in being able to provide services to its citizens while keeping the property tax rate low and I commend our county departments for their ability to adapt to our ever-changing economic situation.”

While the economy is improving slightly, Brown said, “All counties in our state continue to experience unprecedented challenges to their budgets. Like us, many counties are still having to pursue cuts and many are forced to increase property taxes to maintain services. To our continuing credit, Halifax County has been proactive throughout these economic challenges; we proactively initiated difficult cuts at the start of this depression, which has allowed us to more easily adapt to the economic downturn.”

In the proposed budget, the county will continue to maintain service levels despite reductions made over the last years. “We have experienced reductions in all areas of our major revenue streams. This year our sales tax revenue is lower by 3.5 percent as compared to fiscal year 2013-2014. Fortunately, our tax collection rate is 92 percent ahead of last year.”

Crisis situation

Brown sees hope that the situation will turn through several economic development projects under way in the county. “Despite the uncertain economy, we must continue to aggressively collect taxes and exercise conservative fiscal discipline while still maintaining a good, responsive and customer-focused workforce as well as an active economic development program.”

Brown described the current economic situation as one of a crisis situation in the county. With cash reserves, the proposed budget allocates $779,922 from anticipated end of year revenues and department funds that went unspent. This, he said, will maintain critical capital needs and services, and will compensate for reduced revenue projections. “Despite the use of fund balance, our projected reserves will continue to remain at a level required by the Local Government and allow the county to have fiscal stability and an adequate response to any emergencies that could occur in the county.”

Continued reductions

For the upcoming fiscal year, the county continues the reductions made over previous years, but will continue to maintain its service levels. Since 2008, he said, the county has slashed department budgets by $3.1 million, an amount that equals an almost 7.8 percent reduction from its typical $37 million budget.

Department allotments were cut by 1 percent for the upcoming fiscal year.

Budget highlights

Features important to the budget, Brown said, include:

• A document based on a property tax base of $3,608,179,570 and a tax collection rate of 96.89 percent.

• No cost of living adjustments but includes a benefits package that includes 100 percent paid premiums for employees participating in the county's wellness program.

• Continues a hiring freeze, previous staff reductions and suspension of reclassifications that will remain in effect throughout this budget year.

• Funds average daily membership to each of the graded school systems at the current fiscal year level.

• Money to support economic development and contingency operations.

• Funds critical capital outlay for departments.

Continued concerns, positive outcomes

There continue to be concerns, Brown said, despite having a proposed financial document that offers no tax increase. “I continue to have concerns about more unfunded mandates being passed down by these — state and federal — governmental entities. We diligently continue communicating our concerns to our state and federal legislators to ensure they are aware of the potential implications of their decisions on our county.”

The positive outcome of the deliberations, Brown said, is, “Our citizens get a great return on their tax investment. 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.

“Chairman (James) Pierce and the board of commissioners are to also be commended for not raising property taxes. The last property tax increase for Halifax County citizens occurred 11 years ago in 2003.”

That increase spiked the rate from 78.5 cents to 88.5 cents. The 2007 property revaluation prompted a decrease to 68 cents. “I congratulate this board on being taxpayer-focused to ensure our citizens continue to have a reasonable property tax rate with no increases for the past 11 years.”

Pierce said following this morning's meeting, “It was one of the most difficult budgets I have been a part of.”

The chairman is hopeful, however, that economic development projects will pick up and help the county's financial outlook. “One scary thing is the revaluation. We may see some property values go down.”