Young County presents proposed FY 2025 budget

Young County presents proposed FY 2025 budget News Staff Fri, 08/16/2024 - 9:49 am

• (TC GORDON | THE GRAHAM LEADER) Young County Judge Win Graham (middle), commissioner Stacey Rogers (left) and commissioner Scott Shook (right) listen to a presentation at a commissioners court meeting Monday, June 10. The commissioners recently presented a proposed budget and will have a public hearing on the budget and tax rate for the coming fiscal year at 9:30 a.m. Monday, Aug. 26.

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TC Gordon news@grahamleader.com

Editor's Note: This is part one of a two-part story regarding the upcoming budget for Young County.

Budget season is winding down and Young County has completed a proposed budget and tax rate for fiscal year 2025.

The county will hold public hearings for both these topics at 9:30 a.m. Monday, August 26 and the county will consider adoption of both following the close of the hearings.

A proposed tax rate of $0.63 per $100 valuation was published in a public notice in The Graham Leader. This would be a 7.2% increase over the current tax rate of $0.587674 per $100 valuation.

However, County Judge Win Graham filed the proposed budget with a rate of $0.58696, even though commissioners have not taken an official vote to propose the lower rate.

“They have not voted on it,” Graham said. “As budget officer, it is my responsibility to file a proposed budget. The commissioners did not vote on or approve the proposed budget.”

According to the published public notice, commissioners and Graham voted unanimously Monday, Aug. 5 on the proposed rate of $0.63.

For transparency, all numbers in this story will reflect the tax rate of $0.58696 Graham has proposed in the public budget. This would be a 0.12% decrease under the current tax rate of $0.587674 per $100 valuation.

Due to increases in property values, this lower rate would still result in an 6.57% increase in the tax on an average homestead. Under this rate, the county would bring in approximately $8.4 million in tax revenue, $688,338 more than last year’s approximately $7.7 million.

The no-new revenue tax rate is proposed at $0.553763 per $100 valuation and the voter-approval tax rate is slightly higher than the proposed rate at $0.632547 per $100 valuation.

Included in the budget is an increase in the general fund revenues and expenditures. The proposed general fund amount is $13,559,283, an increase of $978,526 from last year’s total of $12,580,757. The general fund includes items such as law enforcement, district and county court, employee and elected official salaries and more.

The jury fund for 2025 is also proposed to increase to $13,300, a $1,000 increase from last year’s amount of $12,300.

The county’s roads and bridges fund will also increase to $3,514,461, a jump of $234,539 from last year’s total of $3,279,922.

These three funds present a total increase in revenues and expenses of $1,214,065.

Of the total roads and bridges fund, $3,302,961 is budgeted to be dispersed among the four precincts in Young County. Precinct 1 has a budget of $910,381, a 17.43% increase from last year’s $775,267.

Precinct 2 is budgeted to receive $892,365, a 16.61% increase from $765,242. Precinct 3 will also be increased to $893,471, a 16.61% jump from $788,966 last year. Precinct 4 is budgeted to receive $881,744, a 19.32% increase from last year’s budget of $738,947.

The largest expenditures for the precincts include road maintenance materials and capital equipment. Precincts 1 and 2 have road maintenance materials budgets of $125,000 each, precinct 3 has a budget of $240,000 and precinct 4 is budgeted $160,000 for these materials.

Multiple precincts have put funds towards capital equipment purchases such as newer MACK trucks and bulldozers. Precinct 4 received approval to purchase a 2024 motor grader for $298,971, and each precinct has committed large amounts of the budget towards newer equipment.

Young County still has a balance remaining in the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds. The county received $3,498,231 and began spending this money in 2022. As of Monday, Aug. 5, the county spent $2,935,611.07, which left a remaining balance of $562,619.93.

Commissioners have the ability to spend this money on a variety of expenses, some of the larger which have included $500,000 in a new ambulance for both the Olney Hamilton Hospital and Graham Regional Medical Center and the new Young County annex, which cost around $1 million.

The county budget has increased overall and there are several major expenses which contribute to the higher total. The county recently agreed to the purchase of a new fire apparatus for use by the city of Graham for $659,419, which the county has budgeted $155,000 for the first payment. There are three different lease options available to the county which range from $87,558.36 over 10 years to $154,246.37 over five years with a different interest rate for each option.

The county made adjustments to the court appointed attorney fees which affect the county and district courts. Many of these fees haven’t been changed in over 20 years, so both the county and district judge determined these fees needed to be raised to try to improve the quality of attorney work in the county.

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