Hernando County Budget Manager Pamela Lee updated the Board of County Commissioners ( BOCC) at the Sept. 19 meeting with regard to a tentative budget and millage rate reduction. The first budget hearing was held later that day.
Last year the general fund portion of the budget was $103,585,994.
“We didn’t have to cut anyone’s budget,” Ms. Lee said as she showed the figures of the $111,192,906 general fund budget. This amount is roughly 7% greater than FY2017 budget.
The budget includes:
• A 1/10 millage rate reduction: $793,016
• A transfer of $1,101,283 from the 2017 Federal Inmate Revenue allowing for the 1/10th of a mill reduction
• Maintaining 18.5% in reserves
• An approximate $200,000 from a .5% contingency reserve for the Sheriff (Required by Florida state law), and $262,670 future years reserves.
The tentative millage rate for FY 2017 was reduced from 6.9912 to 6.8912. To be clear, there will still be a tax increase as property values have increased significantly. If no change had taken place in the millage rate, the county would be collecting $3.7 million more in taxes over FY 2017. With the one tenth of a mill reduction, the county would be collecting around $3 million more than FY 2017.
Ms. Lee asked the board to consider two amendments to the general fund. The first amendment is for the Supervisor of Elections to increase the 2018 budget by $10,507 (to $1,196,256) to allow for updated retirement rates and salary for Constitutional Officers.
The second request comes from the Hernando County Sheriff’s Office (HCSO), to use $762,817 of the remaining $1.1 million in Federal Inmate program revenue for detention staff. Ms. Lee mentioned that recent hurricane damage may lead to additional funds required for repairs.
Colonel Michael Maurer described the needed repairs to the commissioners, beginning with inmate housing that was built in the late eighties. The areas, called “pods” house inmates that will be moved into an annex building while the repairs are underway. Colonel Maurer also said hurricane Irma brought attention to other issues previously unnoticed.
Board consideration for these budget amendments passed unanimously.
Since Hurricane Irma is still a fresh topic, Ms. Lee explained to the board and public how her department handles funding for such unexpected events. Using a process called Project Accounting, each fund has a code for disaster-related items. The code for the latest hurricane expenditures is appropriately, “Irma-17”. Additionally, about $2.7 million in reserves are available.
The final public budget hearing will be held Sept. 26, 2017.