LAFAYETTE, Ga. – Walker County Commissioner Shannon Whitfield adopted a budget Thursday night with a $1.8 million increase in both spending and revenue.
The highlight of the final draft of the budget, compared to the first two editions that Whitfield unveiled over the last month, was a $980,000 boost for building expenses. He plans to repair roofs at the jail, the health department and the county’s Division of Family and Children Services building.
He also hopes to refurbish half of the old Kitchen’s Clinic on South Main Street. He thinks he will move the magistrate court offices and the probate court offices into the building. Earlier this year, county workers turned half the building into a new courthouse annex.
Whitfield would use the current probate court offices, located on the first floor of the main courthouse on South Duke Street, for extra storage. The magistrate court, meanwhile, currently sits in a building between the new annex and the jail.
“There are concerns of the condition of that building,” Whitfield said. “It possibly may need to be tore down.”
Overall, Whitfield’s budget calls for about $29.2 million in expenses and revenues, a 6.5 percent increase over the current fiscal year for Walker County. On the revenue side, the increase is headlined by about $1.5 million more in taxes.
That figure includes about $264,000 more in property tax revenue this year. The tax rate, which Whitfield approved last year, is staying almost the same. But with some property values going up, Whitfield expects to get more money. This will be the fourth time in five years that tax revenue increases in Walker County.
According to the budget, the local government also will get an extra $264,000 from title taxes and $208,000 from insurance premium tax revenue.
In addition to the infrastructure improvements, the biggest boost in spending goes to the sheriff’s office, which will receive about $270,000 more this year. Sheriff Steve Wilson previously said that extra money will largely go toward pay raises and new patrol vehicles. He also confirmed Whitfield’s statement that the department’s budget – about $8 million – is the largest in county history.
The new fiscal year begins Monday.
Contact staff writer Tyler Jett at 423-757-6476 or tjett@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @LetsJett.