Franklin County BOC Passes FY15 Budget

Franklin County’s Board of Commissioners have passed their fiscal 2015 budget.

Early Monday morning, with only three commissioners present for the called meeting, the board passed the budget unanimously.   Commissioners Clint Harper and Bob Franklin were not present for the vote.

At a work session earlier this month, County manager John Phillips outlined the proposed expenses.

“For the fiscal 2015 we’re looking at total expenses of $14,224,940.10,” Phillips said. “This is actually a slight decrease from what we were showing last year. It’s actually a reduction of around $108,000.”

Total projected revenue for FY15, Phillips said is $14, 309,842.

Phillips said the new budget includes adding one new maintenance worker and a 2% across the board raise for all county employees.  It also covers an increase in the county health insurance premium.

The fiscal 2015 budget includes a General Fund budget of $ 11,409,941 dollars and a Water & Sewer Fund budget of $1,297,237.

Not resolved however, is the requested budget amendment for FY14 to cover the $600,000 over run in the Sheriff’s Department Budget.

At their work session last week, none of the county commissioners voted to approve that budget amendment.

However, on Monday, commissioner Jeff Jacques said he would approve a budget amendment to cover cost of living and health insurance increases.

I have asked staff to prepare that, and we should have those numbers this week,” he said. “I’m hoping to have that dollar figure ready for our next meeting in July.”

Commission chair Thomas Bridges has asked the county attorney for further direction after the board failed to approve the entire FY14 budget amendment last week, but he said Monday, he has not heard back from counsel.