Madison County commissioners will use cash reserves to balance an approximate $640,000 revenue shortfall in the 2013 budget.
The county government anticipates less revenues next year due to a drop of over 10 percent in the county digest (overall property value), which means local tax collections will be down this year.
The board agreed to balance the budget with reserve money by a 4-1 vote, with John Pethel providing the lone “No.”
County leaders anticipate roughly $5 million in reserves at the end of the year. Board members noted that the county government didn’t have any reserves several years ago and had to borrow money to balance the budget.
“We’re fortunate to have that cash on hand to do what we’re doing,” said commissioner Mike Youngblood. “A lot of counties haven’t bit the bullet and made the cuts we have and our employees have. If we didn’t have these funds, we’d have to make drastic changes…We put the reserves in place for times like this.”
Pethel said the county has pulled $1 million from reserves to balance the budget over the past two years.
“If next year is worse, will we pull another $640,000 out of reserves or will we do something different?” he asked.
BOC to balance budget with cash reserves
Trackbacks
Trackback specific URI for this entry
No Trackbacks
Comments
Display comments as
(Linear | Threaded)
#1
Ole Jack
on
10/03/12 at 09:53 AM
[Reply]
I like the way Escoe thinks -
#1.1
Anonymous
on
10/03/12 at 08:02 PM
[Reply]
Do you really think that the BOC will roll back property taxes? They will do whatever they can do to keep the property taxes the same for the citizens and reduce services to save a dime and pt it back into reserves. Heaven forbid they take some of those reserves and do something productive to bring in some light industry or businesses into Madison County.
#2
MC taxpayer
on
10/05/12 at 11:42 AM
[Reply]
Mr. Escoe : you are familiar with conservation tax parcel issue. If applied correctly and if parcels that did not qualify removed how much more in county revenue do you think MC would generate. I agree in giving back surpluses to the taxpayer's.
#3
Local
on
10/07/12 at 11:33 AM
[Reply]
Give surplus to Pethel so he can build Madison County to Nowhere.