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County spending may rise

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County payroll up by $6 million

The Williamson County Commissioners approved a decrease in property tax rate as a part of next year's draft budget, in spite of increasing total spending by $14.5 million.

The individual property tax rate fell about 2 cents, from 48.91 cents to 46.83 cents per $100 of total property value - a level that would theoretically maintain the current size of annual revenue.

The proposed budget will likely have some changes as commissioners field last-minute requests from county departments and decide to what extent they are willing to dip into leftover funds from budget shortfalls accrued over the years. Commissioners will vote on the final budget next Tuesday.

The largest increase in the county's $190 million budget came in the general fund, up $9.72 million (9 percent) to $116.8 million. Most of that increase comes from pay raises to county employees, law enforcement, elected officials and department heads.

In its current form, county employees could receive about a 5.6 percent pay hike with a 3 percent mandatory raise and the possibility of a 2.5 percent increase based on performance. Department heads will receive a 5 percent raise and elected officials will receive 4 percent.

The budget also follows for 36 new government employees, though departments requested more than 100. The county's total payroll will grow about $6.1 million.

Commissioners expressed concerns about proposing the use of $3 million in leftover funds from previous fiscal years for general fund expenditures. The county currently has more than $40 million in its coffers created by past budget shortfalls and better-than-expected tax revenue.

“Just because we have it doesn't mean we have to spend it,” Pct. 3 Commissioner Valerie Covey said.

Most of those shortfalls originated from turnover and delayed staff hirings that created extra payroll money, said Ashlie Koenig, the county's assistant budget officer who presented the budget to the court.

Commissioners may insert a policy into the budget requiring future budgets to maintain a balance of extra money no lower than 25 percent of general fund expenditures. The balance of leftover money, also called cash ending, is about 40 percent of the size of the general fund currently.

“I feel real strongly about keeping the cash ending as high as we can,” Pct. 1 Commissioner Lisa Birkman said. “We need to be careful because we may need to take money out of the cash ending to pay debt.”

The cash ending will be used largely for one-time expenditures such as new computers, software, county building maintenance and law enforcement equipment. Commissioners questioned whether those expenses, especially computer equipment, would not be a part of recurring line items. Some items, such as a $60,000 computer server, would not have to be re-upped for a number of years.

Commissioners said a possible additional $2 million of the cash ending could be spent on health benefits for county employees. Birkman said it had been an especially bad year, with several unexpected serious health problems occurring for some county employees and dependents insured under the county's health benefits.

The proposed size of the general fund came in more than $11 million under what department heads requested of the county. The Road and Bridge Fund money was adopted $3.8 million above the requested value, because of pay increases and a decision to not use as much road bond money.

Gattis said he was pleased with the proposed budget.

“I truly believe we have put together a conservative budget that takes care of the county's needs. I really do,” he said.

Because the county adopted the effective tax rate, it will not conduct two scheduled open meetings on tax rate.

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