BOE Approves Financial Report

At its October 13th meeting, the Board of Education approved its August 31st Financial Report. Superintendent Mark Henson quipped that the county currently has a healthy, but tight budget, and that with 16.66 percent of the fiscal year complete, the county is only slightly above budget.Total revenue for July and August is $1,938,922.54 and in this same period, total expenditures equal $4, 884,760.14. Also, the total budget revenue for the year comes to $27,012,938, while the total annual expenditures (YTD) equal $29,126,473. Here, in both categories, expenditures exceed revenue. However, in a recent correspondence with FYN, the superintendent explained that for most districts this ratio is typical at the beginning of the fiscal year. According to Henson, the overage is under one percent, several percentage points below the average. He said that expenditures are higher at the beginning of the year, while revenues are lower—school taxes are received after the first two months of the fiscal year. The county, though, carries a fund balance, which it uses to help offset the inequitable financial ratios of expenditures and revenues at the beginning of the year. In addition to utilizing the fund balance for the offset, Henson said he visits his principals to ensure their budgets are as lean as possible.

The board also gave the most recent Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) report. In July, the sales tax brought in revenue of $305,110.38. This is an increase from last year and far exceeds the expected percentage. The county only expected a one percent increase in SPLOST revenue, where the increase from last year was 5.3 percent. Here. Henson commented on all of the out-of-town tags that he noticed over the weekend, noting,

“Those folks every time they make a purchase are helping offset our local money and our local taxes, and our facilities are in great shape (from SPLOST revenue),” adding, “We have not bonded any of this money at this point…what you see is what you get.”

He also said that the projected year-end revenue from SPLOST is $17,659,451.47.