BY THE NUMBERS$70.4 million: Total Franklin County budget, including school budget$5.1 million: Current debt service budget$36.8 million: Total debt service$4.6 million: Shortfall from ending fund balance under current policy$2.5 million: Shortfall from ending fund balance under proposed revised policy$2.4661: Current property tax rate per $100 of assessed value$137.50: Annual impact of 55-cent increase on $100,000 homeSource: Franklin County Finance Department
Franklin County home-owners could be facing up to a 55-cent property tax hike if the County Commission can't find a remedy for a $4.6 million budget shortfall.
Property owners in the county of just more than 41,000 were hit with a 12-cent property-tax increase last year.
"Basically, we've got a revenue shortfall. We have depended heavily on interest in the past to fund some of our debt-service funds," Finance Director Andrea Smith said. "We haven't been drawing interest over the past few years, so we're having to make up that shortfall now."
She said one immediate step can help lighten the burden on taxpayers by nearly half if requirements for the county's fund balance are shifted for the 2011-12 budget year ending next June.
Current fund balance policy requires Franklin's debt service funds to stand at $5 million, she said. The policy was adopted last year to answer more stringent accounting requirements and set fund balance levels to cover 11/2 years of principal and interest payments on the county's $36.8 million in debt, she said.
Smith said she will recommend that the County Commission reduce the county's fund balance requirements from 11/2 years to one year. The policy change could lower the debt service fund shortfall to about $2.5 million, she said.
"I don't think we're going to have to come up with $4.6 million," she said.
County Mayor Richard Stewart said the county is no stranger to an annual budget battle.
"Every year we're faced with this," Stewart said Wednesday.
The County Commission will begin its first budget talks tonight and will work toward finalizing a budget as soon as August, he said.
Most county departments are keeping their budgets in line with last year's, and the commission has taken steps to cut contributions to local nonprofit groups and organizations "except for the senior citizens," he said.
Stewart said that, while a property tax increase is likely, he believes the commission will find ways to trim spending - even drastic measures such as cutting whole departments - to limit the impact on taxpayers.
"The harshest thing we did last year was we did away with overtime and we had a hiring freeze," he said, "but the snowball keeps on rolling."