Vance County Manager Jordan McMillen was on Wednesday’s edition of WIZS’ Town Talk program to discuss the County’s proposed FY 2019-2020 budget.

Presented to the Vance County Board of Commissioners at their May 6 meeting, the General Fund Budget is proposed to be $48,362,611, a figure that includes all tax-supported governmental activities and represents a 0.4% increase over the current budget.

According to the 247-page proposal, the budget provides sufficient funds to improve the current level of services in several areas and addresses many of the priorities and goals established by the board of commissioners during their annual planning retreat.

In summary, the budget:

• Includes no increase in the general fund property tax rate with a continued pattern of minimal revenue growth.
• Includes an increase of 2.3 cents per $100 in value in the fire tax rate to provide part-time positions to the volunteer fire departments which will assist with improving response times and lowering ISO ratings.
• Includes no increase in the solid waste household fee and includes no increase in the water usage rate while reducing the amount transferred from the general fund to cover water system debt service.
• Improves the current level of services and maintains the county’s healthy financial condition. The general fund balance is projected to be 31.2% by the end of FY19 down from 37.8% in FY18 due to the purchase of land for economic development. The fund balance appropriated to balance the budget is $1,192,442 with a total of $500,000 expected to be spent on non-school and non-debt capital projects.
• Addresses salary compression, retention and employee pay by funding a salary progression plan to move employees along the pay scale on a regular basis.
• Focuses on improving rural fire protection and enhancing overall public safety. This includes providing funding for part-time positions at volunteer fire departments and the rescue squad, replacing a portion of viper radios for public safety departments, and providing staffing increases for the sheriff’s office.
• Includes 2 new deputy sheriff positions, 1 new building codes enforcement officer Ill position, 2 new telecommunicator positions, 2 position upgrades (DSS and tax office), and 2 part-time custodian salary adjustments.
• Prioritizes citizen health and continues working to improve the county’s substance use disorder challenges through increased funding for the health department.
• Advances economic development opportunities for residents and businesses while supporting distance learning opportunities for students by funding initial efforts to deploy affordable wireless broadband in the county with a focus on unserved and underserved areas.
• Includes a major investment in school capital providing $5,252,000 to Vance County Schools to support redesigns for the middle and high schools, multiple HVAC replacements, parking lot redesign and paving at the middle school, ADA upgrades, replacement of the high school boiler system, and other requested school capital needs.
• Implements the FY20 CIP which includes renovations for a new DSS/Senior Center facility as a major debt project and several smaller pay-go (cash) funded projects from fund balance.

“I was pleased with how the budget came together this year,” said McMillen. “Going into it, we were wary of the fact that there wasn’t going to be a lot of additional revenue. We were able to maximize the County services and add some new services with very limited additional revenue growth.”

Of note, McMillen said the proposed fire tax rate increase of 2.3 cents per $100 in value will allow the County to fund two part-time positions at each volunteer fire department, a proposition that has been much-discussed in recent Board meetings and work sessions.

According to McMillen, this rate increase would amount to approximately $23 annually for the average Vance County household.

“This tax increase will help improve response times for citizens and will also allow those departments to lower their ISO (insurance) rating, which translates into real dollar savings for citizens,” explained McMillen.

McMillen also noted that he was pleased the proposed budget provides the Vance County Sheriff’s Office with two of their requested four new deputy sheriff positions.

In total, $1.9 million in additional requests were unable to be funded, according to McMillen, including a request for four new positions at the Vance County Detention Center.

Board of Commissioners will meet in work sessions at 6 p.m. on Monday, May 20 and Tuesday, May 21 to discuss and review the proposed budget.

A public hearing regarding the budget will be held at the Board’s next regularly-scheduled meeting on Monday, June 3 at 6 p.m. in the Commissioners’ Meeting Room, 122 Young Street, Henderson.

The final, approved version of the FY 2019-2020 budget will be effective July 1, 2019. To view the proposed budget, please visit the Vance County website at www.vancecounty.org.

To hear the Town Talk interview with Jordan McMillen in its entirety, click here.