The proposed 2025-2026 county budget was presented to the Alexander County Board of Commissioners at a work session held on Monday, April 21.
Jennifer Herman, Alexander County Finance Director, presented the proposed budget.
Herman emphasized that this is only a proposed budget, and a formal presentation and public hearing are scheduled for the May 19th board meeting.
Marty Pennell, Chairman of the Alexander County Board of Commissioners, said the proposed budget is a good start to a fiscally conservative budget.
“We appreciate the finance department taking the lead on budget preparation this year. We try to determine the most pressing county departmental needs, while looking at what is best for all of our citizens,” Pennell said. “Our residents can rest assured that we are combing through this proposed budget to focus on necessary items and eliminate anything that isn’t crucial for the coming fiscal year.”
Herman said that county departments submitted their proposed budgets several weeks ago, which have been reviewed. She said the original proposed general fund budget showed a shortfall of $8.2 million, but after much review and discussion, expenditures have been cut to reduce the shortfall to approximately $4.3 million. The majority of the budget cuts were for new employees, salary increases, vehicles, equipment, etc. All new positions were removed except for an eight-person EMS crew that is being requested.
Revenues were also increased in the proposed budget to include additional sales tax income, investment income, and more.
Herman said the county could appropriate fund balance to balance the budget, with no plans to spend that money. The county has historically utilized fund balance to balance the budget, but has only had to spend fund balance once in recent years, in 2018.
She said the proposed general fund budget totals approximately $59 million, which is a 4 percent increase of about $2.3 million compared to the current year’s budget. The general fund budget includes a 2.5 percent cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for all county employees and continuation of the employee holiday bonus. The property tax rate will remain at 65 cents per $100 valuation.
The proposed general fund budget includes a new ambulance for $324,000 and 10 vehicles for $571,000, plus various buildings and grounds projects totaling $358,000.
In terms of fee increases, the only general fund fee change is a $50 increase for EMS billing.
In the solid waste fund, the convenience site fee is proposed to be $2 per 30-gallon bag, with landfill fees of $70 a ton for household/commercial/industrial trash and $60 a ton for construction/demolition debris. On the expense side, the solid waste fund proposed budget includes a rubber tire loader for $250,000. Herman said these solid waste fee changes will help stabilize the enterprise fund.
Alexander County Schools submitted a request for supplemental funding of $154,206.32 for shortfalls for the School Nurse Fund Initiative, NC Pre-K, and a School Resource Officer, for a total request of $7,647,247. In addition, Herman said that an informal request was received to help recoup approximately $528,000 in low-wealth supplemental funding.
Herman said most fire departments submitted requests for additional general fund dollars and/or fire district tax rate increases for equipment and staffing. After some discussion, it was the board’s consensus that fire department revenues should come solely from fire tax revenues. Fire chiefs will be invited to the commissioners’ meeting on May 5 to discuss this proposal and their budget requests.
The proposed budget also moves $110,000 from the county water & sewer fund into the general fund to account for salaries and benefits of employees working in those areas.
A public hearing on the budget will be held on Monday, May 19, at 6:00 p.m. at the CVCC Alexander Center, during which time the official budget message will be presented. The budget is scheduled for adoption at the June 2nd meeting.
Regular meetings are recorded and can be viewed on the county’s Government Channel on Spectrum channel 192 or the county’s YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/alexandercountync. Meeting agendas, minutes, videos, and more are available on the county’s website at https://alexandercountync.gov/commissioners.