NEWTON COUNTY – The Newton County Board of Commissioners voted in approval of the fiscal year (FY) 25 budget at its special called meeting on June 25.
The board voted 3-2 in favor of the new budget, with District 3 commissioner Alana Sanders and District 4 commissioner J.C. Henderson opposing.
While this marks the end of a long process to allocate funds for next year, not all problems were solved heading into FY25.
The FY25 budget will support a proposed millage rate of 8.242, which was a slight decrease from 8.439 in 2023. This was a much smaller decrease than from 2022 to 2023 where the rate dropped from 9.454 to 8.439.
The proposed 8.242 millage rate will not cause a full rollback, so Newton County residents will see increased taxes in the upcoming fiscal year.
“The rollback rate calculated by the state’s formula would be a 7.9,” said Newton County finance director Brittany White. “So, anything more than a 7.9 would be an increase.”
There were disagreements throughout the board on Tuesday night, but the message intended by all members was the same. They are doing all they can to cut down taxes for Newton County residents.
Once the issue of increased taxes arose, District 2 commissioner Demond Mason spoke for the board in response to the frustration that is expected to come from the community.
“When I first came in back in 2019, the millage rate was at 13.44 percent,” Mason said. “So from 2019 to now, we are down to 8.2 percent. That says that this board has done work over the past six years to try to find ways where this board can provide relief to our residents.”
County manager Harold Cooper echoed the feelings of Mason and the other board members. He emphasized that they understand what is needed and are continuing to work towards achieving difficult goals.
“We understand that our needs are our wants and our wants are our needs,” Cooper said. “We are being fiscally responsible, and we will continue to be a boutique outfit that does big and bold things in comparison to like-sized counties.”
White presented the budget at the meeting. The FY25 budget will see a 3.1 percent increase from last year with the total funds growing from $129,883,105 to $133,947,460.
The general fund will make up 74.3 percent of the entire budget. This will be an 8.6 percent increase from FY24, expanding from $91,563,770 to $99,462,661.
The budget presentation did raise some positivity as it plans to add additional support for Newton County employees. The support totals over $7.5 million, included in their additions are:
● 4.5 percent cost of living adjustment (COLA) increase for all Newton County employees
● $2 million in full-year defined benefit pension
● 11 percent health insurance increase, totaling $1 million
While Sanders and Henderson opposed the FY25 budget, they both emphasized they are not against the budget as a whole. The two appreciated the support for Newton County employees but a select few issues such as the tax increases and debt payments deterred them from voting in favor.
Sanders also expressed her hope for change in how the board votes on different budget items. She emphasized that she agrees with the majority of the budget, but she would prefer to be able to vote on specific items instead of the budget as a whole.
“It is a little bit hard because when a commissioner is voting on the budget, they are voting on it collectively,” Sanders said. “So they are not against various things such as the pension for the employees and so forth, they may be against certain items that are in the budget.”
Now that the FY25 budget has passed, the next step of the budgeting process for the board will be to adopt the millage rate, which is expected to take place in July.
