WINNSBORO – The second budget workshop for FY2014-15 opened Monday night with a rehashing of what went wrong with the budgeted amount approved by Council for last year’s Summer Youth Program. Councilwoman Carolyn Robinson asked how the 20 students and $16,148 that Council approved in the budget doubled.
County Administrator Milton Pope explained that an additional 20 students were hired for work at the hospital for an additional $16,000+. Robinson asked who overrode Council’s approval and Pope told her the administration signed off on the additional students and costs without Council’s approval. Council Chairman David Ferguson said he felt the work that was done by the students justified the expense. However, Pope assured Robinson that the program would be run this summer within the budgeted amount set by Council. Pope said the County is allotting $15,000 for students who will work for County departments and another $5,000 to the hospital for it to manage its own students.
Councilman Dwayne Perry said he expected the Council to live within the budget. If something is going to go over budget, he said, then he wants it to come back to Council.
The work session covered all revenue funds and County allocations, with Pope and his staff covering the budget line by line for more than four hours. Pope stressed there would be no increases in taxes in any area of the budget so long as no changes were made to the recommended budget in hand. The preliminary general fund ($25,665,917) and special revenue and other funds ($7,629,997) add up to a total budget of $33,295,894, down from last year’s total of $33,598,604.
Pope said he does not yet know how much the mill will be valued at for the coming fiscal year, and that some millage rates might change on the millage resolution list; however, he said the total millage rate for the County would not be more than last fiscal year and that he expected that it might be lower. He emphasized that such expectations were based on the recommended budget with no changes.
Pope said residents can view all the documents presented at the budget workshop on the County’s website under Financials. The charts show how much was adopted but not how much was spent in the FY2013-4 budget, and they show the recommended budget for FY2014-15.
