Last week, the Madison County board of supervisors officially approved the fiscal year 2021 budget to include $132,532,098 in expenditures and $132,756,785 in revenue.
Despite being approximately $20 million higher than the previous fiscal year budget, the county will not see a millage increase. This is largely due to the fact that much of the increase in the 2021 budget is due to one-time project expenditures and one-time revenue.
County Administrator Shelton Vance presented two budget proposals to the board during a public hearing at the September 8 meeting.
The first option, Option A, would accommodate the budget requests from county department heads. The second, Option B, had some slight adjustments to provide the board with an alternative plan.
Option A would reverse the allocation of the solid waste fund to the county-wide fire fund. At the time that was passed, the county was in the process of building two fire stations, Vance said.
In this proposal, Vance said the county would “move that millage back to the solid waste fund to continue shoring up that fund to provide for solid waste pickup across the county.”
Vance also recommended moving one tenth of a mill from the road fund to the bridge and culvert fund to finance sinkhole projects.
“This will reduce the road fund revenue by $113,000, but will increase bridge and culvert revenue by $165,000,” Vance said.
The Option A proposal would include the spending of $30.9 million on road and bridge projects and additional positions.
Vance said the Option B proposal removes new positions and some realignment raises that are included in Option A. So, Option B reduces spending on personnel by approximately $630,000
“Millage changes would still apply,” Vance said. “However, an additional four tenths of a mill would be moved from the general fund to the bridge and culvert fund to address an additional $500,000 worth of drainage.”
The proposal also includes $31.5 million in road and bridge projects.
The board of supervisors voted to approve Option B, with adjustments made to provide cleaning services to county courts.
The 2021 Road Plan will be adopted after January 1, 2021. In the meantime, supervisors will form a list of roads in their respective districts that they would like to be considered for next year’s road plan.
“Road projects all around the county are under consideration,” Vance said. “The board is always looking to fit their priorities into available funding.”
In other action, the board:
• Approved purchasing additional scanners and voting machines for the upcoming election for the Madison County Election Commision;
• Acknowledged House Bill 842, which provides increases in pay for election commissioners and poll managers for upcoming elections;
• Approved re-subdivision of lots one through seven and 30 through 33 at The Shores at Caroline, Phase 1;
• Approved the naming of a road within the megasite as Madison County Parkway.
