1 comment for Polk FY 2018 budget

A Public Hearing over the 2018 fiscal year budget for the Polk County government went by with only one public comment on the record from this reporter, and was kept short and sweet by county officials.

County manager Matt Denton opened the meeting with brief comments on May 18, but without any members of the public available only left the meeting open for 15 minutes.

Editor Kevin Myrick, being the only member of the press or public at the meeting, made only one comment citing the need for the county to include the amounts of previous fund balance available from the past year, and what that figure would be for the coming year in FY 2018.

The coming year’s balanced funds coming in at more than $20 million in revenue and expenditures for the coming fiscal year.

Four out of six commissioners were on hand for the first round of budget work sessions held on the coming finances for July 2017 to June 2018, which includes an annual step raise increase of 1.25 percent for all employees.

Cuts came across the board off of what departments had requested in expenditures for the year in several areas, but generally numbers were only slightly above the proposed and approved budgets for FY 2017.

The proposed budget calls for $14.9 million in property tax collections for the county, along with $147,700 from licenses and permits, $743,450 from intergovernmental revenues, $889,250 for charges for services, $ 717,700 from fines and forfeitures, 5,000 from investment income, 576,530 from miscellaneous sources and $ 2,775,000 in other revenue sources which includes $1.5 million from the annual payments from Waste Industries, and $965,000 from the prior fund balance.

Another $20,000 of the other revenue will also come from sales of assets.

Some of that money will be set aside, such as $170,000 for the landfill contingency fund and $60,000 from funds for rental income on the landfill transfer station used by Waste Industries at the Grady Road landfill.

As far as expenditures go for the year, the proposed budget put forth by County Manager Matt Denton for the commission to consider includes $4,196,823 in general government spending, $ 2,604,755 for the judicial system, $ 8,863,035 in public safety costs, $3,464,904 for Public Works, $650,053 for housing and development and $980,060 in agency allocations for the year.

Breaking down costs further, Public Safety spending was broken down at a total of $4,506,333 for the Polk County Sheriff, $2,787,859 for the police department, $422,360 for prisoner medical services at the Polk County Jail, $322,783 for Animal Control, $83,103 for the county probation officers, $192,425 for the fire department, Emergency Management Agency costs at $172,549, and 911 services totaling $323,000. The County Coroner has a budget of $52,623.

Not included in the budget is any funds being set aside for the potential for Polk County’s Fire Department bringing on paid firefighters into their ranks and moving stations, since county administrators are waiting to see whether a SAFER grant to help pay for firefighters will be awarded. There’s also no funding mechanism in place either.

$2.8 million of the $3.4 million set aside for Public Works will be spent on the department operations itself, with an additional $569,653 budgeted for local solid waste collection costs during the coming fiscal year.

Housing and development costs this year also included the airport, which totaled $336,660 for operations in the coming year.

Totaled together and balanced, the budget comes out to $20,759,630. That compares to the $20,962,292 requested by departments for the coming year’s fiscal budget, with cuts in the final proposal from Denton totaling $202,662.

Commissioners will get to hear more from department heads if they seek to ask for additional funds during the upcoming second budget work session scheduled for 4 p.m. on today at the County Police Department in the Board of Commissioners meeting room.

They previously heard a request during the first work session from Animal Control Director Jeff Crawford for additional funds for his budget to cover food, supplies and medical costs for the department.

He cited that previous food donations to the department from Rockmart’s Walmart were one reason why he was seeking additional funds, along with the need to purchase more cleaner used in eradicating Parvo out of the shelter, which is expensive and can only be purchased in 55 gallon drums at a time.

However, he told commissioners he had no need for more than $11,000 in funding set aside for a part time position of volunteer coordinator within the department.

Crawford told commissioners he only learned about the new position for his department and the money approving half a year’s salary only after it was approved by the board.

Commissioner Jason Ward argued that if Crawford had a volunteer coordinator, it would have greatly helped during previous contentious times in the department when volunteers were barred from participation, increased paperwork costs due to open records requests being filed at the time, and in helping to secure donations that would decrease the department’s need for additional funds.

The board also suggested that Crawford could better tailor the description of the volunteer coordinator to serve the needs the department in a variety of areas, not just in ensuring that residents participate and help with department needs.

His budget was increased to cover costs of food, supplies and medical expenses, but the position remains in place.