Republican Hamilton County Mayor Weston Wamp is proposing a new county budgeting practice that he said may allow officials to begin spending a majority of the unspent budgeted dollars that have long gone toward rainy day savings.
“When the books are closed, over the next few months, on fiscal year 2025, if there is a surplus, instead of that surplus by default going back into fund balance, we would capture a portion of that, budget it into fiscal year 2026, in order to fund important one-time projects,” Wamp told commissioners during his budget presentation last week.
Wamp’s pitch to the majority Republican commission to budget potential surplus funds later this year came just after Republican commissioners praised the majority Republican Board of Education for spending cuts that balanced the schools budget. County finances have been strained by lagging growth and the commission’s approval last year of the largest bond in county history.
The reversionary budget amendment Wamp proposed May 19 would come before the 11-member panel in October, several months after commissioners approve this year’s budget, which they received May 16 and have weeks to consider before voting.