Oconee County Reports Budget Surplus

Oconee County Board of Commissioners urged department heads and other county leaders on Tuesday to go back and review a list of postponed requests to upgrade or replace old equipment and facilities, after a review of a preliminary audit revealed a budget savings in fiscal year 2011.

Oconee County collected $1.5 million more revenue than anticipated from July 2010 to June 2011, and after spending $21.1 million, ended the year with $9.8 million in reserves, County Finance Director Jeff Benko said at a meeting.

Predicting slow economic growth, officials expected to dip into reserve funds by $1.1 million, but after six consecutive months of increased sales tax revenue and other savings measures, the county netted a savings of $140,000 more than the prior year's fund balance, Benko said.

“When you all (commissioners) set the budget for 2011, you asked me what I felt comfortable with at that time, and I said at the most I would not want the fund balance to go lower than $8.5 million, considering that we needed those reserves to run our government,” Benko said. “But I'm here to report that those funds did not go down to $8.5 million, they went up to $9.8 million. “That's a tremendous swing, and it makes our government stronger at 6/30/11 then it was at 6/30/10.”

Benko offered several reasons for the savings, such as a new inmate contract with the county jail that generated $500,000, the sale of surplus equipment for $128,000 and court and parks fees that raised $177,000. Tax collections also came in $470,000 more than expected, he said.

Officials also reduced expenses from an enterprise fund by $390,000, he said.

“All indications were it was a very good year,” Benko said.

After the presentation, Commissioner Chuck Horton suggested all county department heads and constitutional officers come up with a list of “critical needs,” so the board could _, such as new vehicles for the _.

Commissioner Jim Luke suggested officials also consider raising employee salaries, which have been frozen since 2008.

“I don't think we need to spend all this money just because we got it, but if we can do something to help staff some I'd like to make sure we could at least do what we can to include them in this process if there is any money we can afford to spend going forward,” Luke said.

In other business, commissioners discussed:

• A proposal for tobacco free parks. See an article about this on Oct. 27.
• A request by Brian Hawkins to serve a new 5-year term as a member of the Oconee County Library Board.
• A request for an alcohol license by the owner of a Chevron in Bishop.
• Revisions to the Unified Development Code.
• A proposed disc golf course planned for Oconee County Veterans Park.
• An amendment to the USDA sewer easement.
• A proposal to rename a new road inside the Georgia Highway 10 Loop to Plaza Parkway.
• Hiring Atlantic Coast Consulting to conduct testing and monitoring of the closed Oconee County landfill.
• A new wellness program for county employees that could save the county money on insurance premiums and retain a healthier, more productive workforce.
• A first-quarter financial update for fiscal year 2012.

Up next for commissioners is a regular meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 1 at 7 p.m.