Superintendent Mark Henson said showed concerned about the recent SPLOST report during this month’s Board of Education meeting. According to the May report, collections for the tax are approximately $30,000 less than last year at this time.

“We started SPLOST III healthy,”

Henson said,

“We’ve been above projections each month…then all of a sudden in April of this year, we were down $30,000.”

Henson speculated that several factors may explain the low collection for May. The difference in collection cycles, as well as the large collection this time last year, both may have offset the numbers, he said. Despite the low May collections, the board is still expected to collect total revenue of $18,538,164.04 from the tax. Also, Henson reminded the board and those in attendance that this money is not bonded, meaning the county does not have to pay interest on the collected revenue. In short, the BOE can spend 100 percent of the collections with no debt.

“We just have to be careful of the projects we choose,”

he cautioned,

“so we make sure we can pay as we go.”

Regarding the low May collections, Henson said he hopes to soon see a turnaround.

“One month does not a trend make,”

he said, saying that even with the sluggish middle of SPLOST III, he feels the county is still doing better than SPLOST II, which, he said, was bonded money.

The Board of Education also approved an additional spending resolution this week. Previously, the board had approved a July spending resolution. As such, the resolution approved on Thursday allows the board to operate through August until the county’s tax digest is complete.

Prefacing his explanation of the need for the additional resolution, Henson said he appreciated the hard work of the assessors’ office.

“The three year freeze on the tax digest was ended this year,”

he said,

“they wanted to make sure that they had the digest exactly right, so they asked for a month extension.”

He added, though, he thought the board would receive the digest in two weeks. Henson went on to explain that even if the BOE received the digest tomorrow, it still would not have enough time to advertise the budget hearings, in addition to setting a tentative budget and millage rate.

Additionally, the board approved the May financial report. Henson said local taxes are coming in extremely well, highlighting a 90 percent collection. The May report, though, seemed bleak in comparison to the report from the same time last year. Henson said the district is at 90 percent revenue, where last year at this time, revenue was at 96 percent. As follows, expenditures are also down. May expenditures were at 83 percent, when last year they were 89 percent. Henson gave a reason for the decline.

“Fannin County has received 79 percent of state revenue,”

he said, explaining,

“this figure is low because the Georgia Department of Education has made payments directly to the Department of Community Health from our QBE (Quality Basic Education) funds for employee health insurance.”

Prior to this year, these funds were sent to the districts and then the districts would send the payments to the Department of Community Health. The new procedure, he said, was due to cash flow issues in the Department of Community Health.

“The Department of Education made this decision after we set our budget and this will cause both our revenues and expenditures to $2,214,083 less than what we budgeted for fiscal year ’13,”

he said.

Despite these numbers and having completed 96 percent of the fiscal year, Henson is optimistic, saying that Fannin County has a healthy budget report.

Later in the meeting, Financial Director Susan Jackson delivered a report on the district’s recently ended audit. According to the report, Fannin County received an unqualified opinion.

“This is issued,”

she said,

“when the independent auditor believes that the entity’s financial statements are free from material misstatements.”

The board lauded Jackson’s work, while Jackson gave credit to her co-workers.