Millions over budget, county tugs at the reins

By DEUCE NIVEN

tribdeuce@tabor-loris.com

     First steps towards getting significant deficits in the Columbus County government budget under control were taken by county commissioners on Monday, including a partial freeze on hiring and correcting significant revenue over-estimates.

     A series of actions approved with one vote included:

• A payroll expense reduction of more than $1.02 million achieved by freezing vacant positions across county government.
• Reducing utility franchise tax revenues by nearly $3 million to reflect an overstatement of those funds in the current budget.

     Additional steps are to come, County Manager Eddie Madden told the board, with county department heads expected to make recommendations to cut 5 percent from their budget for the rest of the year that ends on June 30.

     Madden said those department heads have been instructed to make their recommendations by this Friday, with budget amendments reflecting those cuts expected before commissioners at their Feb. 17 meeting.

     Those steps come in the aftermath of a Jan. 20 audit report to commissioners that a stark warning to get the county’s finances in order or face a potential takeover of the county government by North Carolina’s Local Government Commission, a division of the State Treasurer’s office.

     Auditor LeeAnn Bagasala, CPA and Director of Mauldin & Jenkins, an Atlanta based auditing firm, told commissioners last month that the county’s fund balance, essentially it’s cash reserves, had fallen well below minimums established by the LGC.

     For the year ending June 30, 2022, the county’s fund balance was health at 44 percent of its total general fund budget, Bagasala said then. Now it’s 19 percent.”

     For a county the size of Columbus the LGC recommends an unincumbered fund balance of about 39 percent, Bagasala said.

     For much more on this story see this week’s Tabor-Loris Tribune, in print and online, on Wednesday.