Proposed budget raises County worker wages, tax levy should decrease

BROOKHAVEN — Lincoln County Administrator Daniel Calcote presented his recommended Lincoln County budget for Fiscal Year 2025 Monday morning. The Board of Supervisors voted to accept the recommended budget and will hold an official public hearing on Sept. 3, 2024 at 9 a.m.

Overall assessment of properties went up which means the expected revenues have increased. Calcote said this will help the County pay better wages to employees while not raising the tax levy.

“It is getting to be a tough market to get people to work. We like to try and be competitive,” Calcote said. “Tax levy in the county school district will go down. They requested less money but property value going up outweighs the requested money so the levy will decrease by one mill.”

One mill is 1/1000th of a dollar.

According to the budget recommendation, projected revenues have increased by $895,000 from the prior year’s budget. Higher assessment values of properties brings in an increase of ad valorem taxes of $406,000. Lincoln County will also get $250,000 from Walmart Distribution Center.

Department budgeted expenditures will go up due to higher costs of goods and services. The Board of Supervisors budget for example will increase $425,000 from the prior year. The money from Walmart will be allocated to the board for 2025 but will need to go towards bond payments in the future. Part of the increase was due to increases for the Civic Center and E911.

The Justice Court’s budget will see an increase of $25,000 due to increased salaries. Calcote wrote in his report that since the new Justice Court clerk was appointed an increase of fines and fees collected have gone up. The Justice Court is working to collect millions in old unpaid fines.

Potential changes

Calcote wrote that the E911 Fund could see some changes in the future. Brookhaven contributes $310,000 annually to the fund since merging dispatch with Lincoln County. The only source of funding for E911 has been from general fund transfers and monthly payments by phone companies.

Calcote stated he requested to increase the general fund allocation to E911 by $20,000 and in the future will talk with the Supervisors Association about pushing phone companies to increase E911 funding. The funding has not increased with inflation over the past few years.

Garbage and solid waste could see some changes. Waste Management is taking over garbage collection and fees could go up for the County. Calcote wrote Waste Management will assist Lincoln County in billing anyone who is getting their trash picked up.

“I expect these costs to increase in coming years much like all other services. We have not raised rates on citizens in a long time,” Calcote wrote. “We may need to look into a slight increase in the next few years if our costs begin to consistently outweigh our income which has been the case in some years recently.”

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