Halifax County’s budget for the upcoming fiscal year passed today on a 3-2 vote.
Commissioner Rives Manning, who proposed alternate amendments to the financial plan, and Gene Minton, who said earlier this month he would not support it, voted against the budget.
The budget, in which $2 million was pulled from the fund balance, left county commissioners today questioning what they would face in the 2011-2012 fiscal year.
Chair James Pierce said following today’s meeting the county was going to have to do an efficiency to look for duplications. “We need to make sure we are doing things as efficiently as we can.”
Asked whether there was some $2 million that could be trimmed, Pierce said, “We don’t know what’s out there. That’s why we want the study to see.”
To get to today’s approval of the $35.97 million budget was a nine-month process, County Manager Tony Brown said. “We’re keeping services at an appropriate level, not the best level.”
Minton asked Brown what plans the county had to prevent deficit spending in the future.
“We still investigating,” Brown replied. “We’ve been challenging department heads to pursue efficiency from within.”
When Minton asked if there was a concrete plan, Brown responded, “Not to the point we have a committee in place.”
Manning presented his changes to budget, which focused on a $2.2 million fund balance within EMS, something he said accumulated over time. “It goes to prove EMS is collecting more money than it’s spending.”
His proposal of transferring funds from the EMS account would increase Lake Gaston weed control funding to $116,000, give $500 to Four Rivers RC&D and $4,000 to beaver management. “We’re still maintaining the same bottom line we had before.”
Pierce said, however, “Dropping funds from reserve is not a good way to run the county. We can sit here and come up with ideas (for funding new items) but we need to look at the whole county and what’s best.”
Commissioner Marcelle Smith said if the board considered Manning’s proposal it would have to look at other requests that weren’t funded.
Manning argued the lake makes up 18 percent of the county’s tax base and credited Four Rivers with getting Clean Water Management Act funds not only for the county but Roanoke Rapids.
His motion for the amendments failed on a 4-1 vote.
The vote to adopt the budget passed 3-2 with Manning and Minton voting against it.
Commissioners opted in April to take $2.072 million from its fund balance to save cutting jobs and hours.
The move saves 23 full time employees from having their hours cut, two full time positions from being cut and two part time positions from being cut.
The move also gives the county a draft financial plan for the next fiscal year in the low $30 million range which is balanced. The tax rate remains unchanged at 68 cents per $100 of valuation.
The move, however, leaves several requests slashed. The Choanoke Area Development Association will see its request cut 10 percent, the Lake Gaston Weed Control Council will only get $50,000 and no money was budgeted for the Roanoke Rapids Main Street program.
The county already adopted some savings measures this fiscal year. The county is saving up to 70 percent in costs by requiring employees to use county vehicles if available for travel. It also combined Human Resources, Aging and Veterans into Human Resources Management.
Driving the lean budget are sales taxes which are down by 28 percent and a 78 percent reduction in interest earned accounts along with a poor economy.
Other highlights of the budget include:
• Property tax collections have been consistent
• Current year 1.4 percent reductions in total budget
• Schools got cut by 3 percent as well for the current year, including HCC
• The tax collection rate is between 95 percent to 96 percent.
