Unadjusted end of year budget for 2019 under by 4 percent

BLUE RIDGE, Ga – Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Robin Gazaway presented the unadjusted budget for 2019, which came in at four percent under.

“This is not final just so everyone knows. There are several adjustments that need to be made. Most everything has been under budget. Risk management was a little over. There’s going to be some more expenses, but there’s going to be some more reimbursements on that,” Gazaway said in her report opening.

Almost every department came in under budget for the year. Recreation went over due to new programs that were approved. EMA came in a little over as well because of the new fire station.

The numbers could change once the adjustments are finished.

SPLOST and LOST were up again from past years, continuing a trend for the county. The numbers can be found at the Georgia Dept. of Revenue. For 2019, LOST was $438,348 and SPLOST was $576,079.

Gazaway told Post One Earl Johnson, “New auditors probably won’t come in until May to do the final audit. They are just trying to put us in the rotation.”

Traditionally, Gazaway has waited until the auditors have finished their work before presenting the adjusted budget to the board for a vote.

SPLOST Inconsistencies

Johnson also called attention to discrepancies in Public Works’ old SPLOST and new SPLOST numbers.

“The old SPLOST is $842,030 under on the report,” said Johnson, “so do we have any idea what we spent out of the old SPLOST, is it the $657,970 number?”

Gazaway confirmed the $657,970 was the amount spent. She also thought they had more money in that account and the auditors made an adjustment. The money didn’t disappear; it went into the new SPLOST because of the adjustment.

“Because of the two-month cut-off, I had put money in the old SPLOST when it should have been in the new SPLOST,” explained Gazaway. “So, when we did budgets, I thought we had a little more money in the old. It’s just something I overestimated and told Zack. We kind of went by my numbers.”