Robbinsville – As Graham County examines its pending budget for the 2020-21 fiscal year, there is still help needed in the current fiscal year.
At Friday’s public budget hearing with the Graham County Board of Commissioners public budget hearing, County Manager Becky Garland explained the need to add an estimated $95,000 to the jail’s budget, which should cover payroll, expenses and operations through the end of June, which ends the fiscal year.
“I cannot cut another payroll or another check for jail-related expenditures without amending,” Garland emphatically stated. “Otherwise, each and every check that is cut will have to come before the board for authorization.”
Wages have exceeded the budget by $37,000. Garland added that scheduling could be an issue, pointing to the May 11 day shift as an example. During the shift, there were six employees on hand for 12 inmates, with county clerk Kim Crisp adding that two of those employees were assigned to the work crew.
Garland later pointed out Sheriff Joseph Jones’ efforts to generate revenue in his department, explaining that Jones had put a stop to physical training midway through the fiscal year and brought in $11,000 in revenue from the impound lot.
“He’s the first sheriff that I’ve ever worked with that has ran the impound like it should be ran,” she said.
Garland also revealed that Jones accrued around $115,000 in overtime during the county’s effort to man its borders around the clock in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. Those expenses will be covered by FEMA and CARES Act money.
The board settled on a unanimous $25,000 amendment and will examine further needs at its next meeting, which takes place Tuesday.
Budget notes
Garland spent the better part of the meeting going over the pending 2020-21 budget, which is available for public review at the community building. Highlights from her report included:
* The county reported $1.4 million in revenue for May.
* The 2020-21 budget projects $15.2 million in county revenue, which would be a $1.1 million loss and stems heavily on a N.C. Association of County Commission’s projection of a $600,000 loss in sales tax. “This is the most guessing I’ve done in 10 years of creating budgets because there are so many unknowns,” Garland said. “I hope I’m wrong and I think I’m probably too low, but at the end of the day I don’t want to have any bad surprises, either.”
* The county has collected $65,000 in property taxes for 2019-20, while only $30,000 was collected in 2018-19.
* County departments have requested a total of $17.1 million in expenditures, while Graham County Schools have requested $1 million in expenses and $100,000 in capital outlay.
* Bids will be put out soon for the new recreation and cemetery buildings, as well as the remodel of one of the community building’s wings for the relocation of the Graham County Board of Elections.