We Are Improving!

We hope that you'll find our new look appealing and the site easier to navigate than before. Please pardon any 404's that you may see, we're trying to tidy those up!  Should you find yourself on a 404 page please use the search feature in the navigation bar.  

Star InactiveStar InactiveStar InactiveStar InactiveStar Inactive
 

Halifax County commissioners will go with a budget option which calls for no tax increase in the upcoming fiscal year and pulls $1,691,653 from the unassigned fund balance for unfunded items and outside requests.

After discussion during a meeting Monday night the county is proposing a $51,814,140 financial plan that includes $13,253 for outside requests.

The proposed balanced budget includes the following:

Funding to each department to support and maintain current service levels

Funding for recurring and critical capital in each department

Funding average daily membership for each of the three local school districts

Funding school capital for each local district

Funding for contingencies

A 3 percent cost of living adjustment for employees

Enough growth to absorb increased benefits costs

Enough growth to absorb grade changes in effect for the sheriff’s office

Each of the school districts will receive $175,000 of Article 44 funding for capital while Halifax Community College will receive $150,000 which County Attorney Glynn Rollins said in HCC’s case does not have to be set aside for capital.

County Manager Dia Denton said Article 44 funding has been in place for the last four to five years and is sales tax dollars which come to the county. The county decides whether the money is to be used for economic development or education. “In the beginning the commissioners have always contributed to education.”

The capital request summary includes VIPER radio equipment; building improvements for the health department and EMS stations; a pier at the 4-H Rural Life Center pond; vehicles, including an ambulance, sheriff’s office patrol cars, and vehicles for social services and health department; and departmental computer replacement and software upgrades.

Option 1

There was no action taken on the plan during the meeting, but commissioners, with Carolyn Johnson having to leave early, did give their consensus for staff to continue developing the financial plan with that option — Option 1 — in mind.

The unfunded items which will be addressed in Option 1 include $500,000 for the county’s capital improvement plan; $210,000 county employee pay for performance bonus pay; $911,000 for employee bonuses; and $57,400 for Americans with Disabilities Act compliance audit issues at Halifax Community College.

Denton said she anticipates that revenue growth will cover the recurring salary adjustment with the sheriff’s office pay.

Commissioner Linda Brewer said she studied the proposals over the weekend. “I know what we have done for the sheriff’s office and I know the concern that came from us during those discussions and meetings.”

Brewer said, “We need to do whatever we can for all employees with the knowledge that we’re undergoing a study but I think we need to do what we  can for our employees.” 

Later Brewer said, “I’m good with it. I think the staff has worked long and hard on this. I think we’ve thoroughly covered everything we could cover. I’m praying one day we can do a whole lot more for our employees than we currently do.”

HCC discussion

Commissioner John Smith said aside from the Article 44 funds and money for the ADA compliance issue, there was little money allocated for the community college.

The ADA money, he said, is something the college is “somewhat forced to spend on. What’s recommended to be done is no fault of their own. How do they do that if they are mandated to do that unless we help them do that?”

An issue of contention associated with the college was brought up by Commissioner Patrick Qualls. That issue was a payment included in later options in which the board was asked to fund $96,784 in operating expenses for the school’s Advanced Manufacturing and Corporate Training Center.

“The advanced manufacturing building they’re in is there,” Smith said. “It has to be paid for, it has to be maintained so what do we do? We don’t do anything to help them at all? It’s our community college, it’s needed in the area and if we’re not going to support them then who’s going to support it?” 

Qualls contends the board “begged” trustees and leadership not to go through with the center. “They were coming to us every year because they couldn’t make expenses,” he said. “We begged them, I begged them. I’ll mention the chairman begged them not only in meetings but private meetings where we had breakfast with them and they did it anyway. We’ll just have to agree to disagree on this. If that is included in the budget I will vote against it because I begged them not to do it and the community college did it anyway.”

Qualls charged that the college went forward with the center in a time of sinking population when a building could have been repurposed. “They chose to use funds that were specifically designated for keeping what they had up. They promised they were going to raise all the matching funds to do that. That could have all been taken care of with that money. I’m sorry I’m not going to reward them for doing the wrong thing.” 

Denton said, as related to Article 44, the money for the college doesn’t have to be spent on capital. “The funding that the county gives the college appears to be lumped in any way based on the budget reports I’ve seen. I think any of the capital could be used for current expenses.”

Forester comments 

HCC Acting President David Forester addressed another concern registered by Qualls — Northampton County’s role in funding the college.

The college currently gets $97,000 from Northampton, he said. “They’re not obligated to support the college for capital because we don’t have any physical location in Northampton County. Technically they’re not obligated to provide us any funds.”

When he first began work at the college, Forester said Northampton County contributed $30,000. “We’ve at least moved it up to $97,000. We’ve asked for a little more than $103,000 this year because we’ve been stuck at $97,000 for two years.”

He said the college is trying to move forward and progress in its relationship with Northampton County. “I’ve noted with them that they have about 20 percent of the student base on campus for the fall curriculum overall enrollment and that was part of the justification for the increase but right now we don’t know what that’s going to look like for the next year.”

The college, he said, presented a list of 21 projects approved by trustees to present to commissioners at a total of more than $12 million.

But the college has received funds through the state General Assembly for a total of $7.39 million. Of that, $1.9 million has been allocated for the water loop project and $5.44 million for renovations and repairs on campus.

The college has also been notified it has received $1.498 million in additional infrastructure funding from the community college system with the possibility of the same amount in year three and four, Forester said. “The totality is we may have some external sources if the year three and four comes through of about $10.38 million. That’s going to help us a lot with those 21 projects on the list but what it will not help us is the operation of the advanced manufacturing corporate training center.”

Denton said discussions Monday indicated the college could take the advanced manufacturing center funds from the Article 44 funding.

Smith did say he was comfortable with Option 1 “as long as we have some monies for the community college.”