Banks faces major budget shortfall

The proposed budget has no employee pay increases in it.

“No raises, just the cost of operating the county,” commissioner Joe Barefoot said.

Finance director Randy Failyer said the proposed budget is down $1.06 million from the 2008-09 budget.

“Revenues are also down,” Failyer said.

Part of the revenues that are down come from the state doing away with a homeowner tax relief grant that had been in place for the last few years.

The commissioners are faced with a $2.2 million deficit to balance the budget. Failyer said if the $2.2 million is taken from prior year reserves to make the budget balance, “this would leave no reserves.”

Commissioner Ricky Cain said a Banks County citizen asked him about the county doing employee furloughs like other counties in the area. Cain asked Failyer to check and see how this would impact the budget.

If the BOC were to raise the millage rate, it would require a total of four mills to make up the $2.2 million deficit. That would be an additional $160 in taxes on $100,000 in value.

Cain said in the tough economic times as we are seeing now it is not a time to raise the millage rate.

The BOC has not raised the millage rate for Banks County residents in four or five years clerk Jenni Gailey said.

“I think you can say without a shadow of a doubt, over the past four or five years, ya’ll have done a good job with the budget,” she said.

Barefoot asked Failyer to re-crunch the numbers with the changes the commissioners discussed and see where the total 2010 budget stands.

“You folks, where you sit, are between a rock and a hard place because people expect certain services,” Banks County Sheriff Charles Chapman said.