Franklin County FY16 Budget Right on Target, Says County Manager

Franklin County is right on target financially in their 2016 budget.

Last week County Manager Beth Thomas told the board of commissioners it’s time to begin work on their FY17 budget and gave the board members a suggested timeline for meetings and public hearings.

“It’s that time of year to talk about budgets again. I’ve included in your packet a proposed calendar. I’ve also included a very high level forecast, taking our FY16 budget and hitting all of the items that we might want to consider, the state-mandated items, items we think we might want to consider, our reduction in sales tax revenue and looking at what we’re facing,” Thomas explained.

Last year, Franklin County was facing stiff budget and personnel cuts due to a depletion in the County’s reserve funds along with the high cost of the hospital bond debt.

At their recent work session, Commissioner Jeff Jacques asked Thomas where the County is in terms of this year’s fiscal budget.

“We look like, based on what I’m seeing, we’re looking at some shortfalls,” he said. “Are we going to be able to make it to the end of the year with our revenues versus expenditures without making more adjustments,” Jacques asked.

Thomas said so far, funds have been tight but the County should be OK through the end of June.

“We began the fiscal year with zero cash reserves. We created a balanced budget which offered no excess funds,” she said. “But we looked at our financial reports in December and we were running right on line.”

Thomas commended department heads for not going over their budgets and spending unnecessarily.

“Some of that shortfall where they’re not expending it just because it’s in the budget, is helping us make up for some of these other areas,” Thomas said. “As of December, projecting forward, we will end up at zero. We will hit the budget.”

Thomas said she will do another analysis at the end of the next quarter.

In addition to austerity cuts for FY16, the County also is in the process of refinancing the hospital bond debt to lower the interest rates after voter approved the referendum in November.

Additionally, the voters approved beginning the next special purpose local option sales tax a year early in order to bring in much needed revenue from the penny sales tax.

Franklin County’s fiscal year ends June 30th.