Daviess County Fiscal Court on Tuesday presented their proposed budget for the 2022-23 Fiscal Year.
“We have taken the Daviess County Fiscal Court to the next step up,” said Judge-Executive Al Mattingly, who has now been a part of 12 county budgets. “We’ve paved more roads, addressed issues such as animal control, issues such as property maintenance.”
A general overview of the budget is as follows:
The general fund is budgeted at $49.6 million — which is up roughly $11 million.
Total expenses are budgeted at $10.2 million — up $900,000 largely due to salary and benefit increases.
Solid Waste Construction sits at $1.6 million, and the Solid Waste Operating Fund plans to collect $10 to $11 million in revenue.
Daviess County Treasurer Jim Hendrix said that revenues for the general fund will “remain steady,” with a roughly $200,000 increase in property tax (a normal increase according to Hendrix) and an $800,000 drop in the insurance premium tax due to dropping the Convention Center premium tax.
The occupational tax went up, with around a $900,000 increase.
Funding for the Sheriff’s Office is set to $2.8 million.
The road fund will have a state reimbursement of $430,000, and the Lyddane Bridge will be receiving $325,000.
Funding for the asphalting and Local Government Economic Assistance Fund sits at $1.65 million, which is a $300,000 increase.
The jail fund was proposed to have $3.8 million, which is up significantly because the budget for last year did not show the $1.2 million that the jail received for CARES funding.
“The increase looks a lot bigger but from actual to actual the increase isn’t that big, but from budget to budget it is that big,” Hendrix said.
The solid waste funds are still performing as expected by supplying a sufficient amount of finances for its own operations in accordance with its 5-year plan. This budget year Hendrix said they are looking into buying a $1.4 million compactor to help along with construction on a new cell.
Mattingly said that the county does sit at roughly $14 million in debt; however, he said by the end of FY 23-24, the debt will be under $10 million.
The departments budget breakdown is as follows:
Capital Expeditures
The Parks Department will see $500,000 for capital repairs and maintenance and $150,000 for the Panther Creek Park on three of its fields. In total, the budget sits at $2.6 million.
The Fire Department will have two trucks to budget for. One is a carryover purchase, but both trucks are priced at about $540,000 each. Some gears are being replaced per annual practice at about $180,000. The department is adding a couple of sirens for EMA as well.
The Road Department is seeing $160,000 added to their funding for a tractor and bushhog. A single axel dump truck was added for $65,000 with other equipment totaling $30,000. Asphalting for road funds is receiving $859,000 — with $641,000 paid for out of the LGEAF. FLEX Funds from the state are slightly less than $300,000. The Bridge Fund will be giving $80,000.
The Engineering Department is budgeted for $325,000 to help build a bridge.
As far as big projects go, there is a carryover from the public radio station project of $1.2 million and a flowthrough grant from KIA to the east water district of $850,000.
RWRA is receiving $2 million and the Senior Citizen Center is also receiving $2 million. Habitat for Humanity has already received $1 million.
Other infrastructure projects will receive $4.9 million.
This totals the governmental funds at $17.5 million.
Enterprise Funds
The budget includes purchasing a compactor for $1.4 million, a tractor for land farming for $300,000, a fuel truck of $143,000 which has already come in. A compost green grant of $300,000 won’t be spent unless a grant is received.
The Transfer station replaced 2 tractors for $255,000, 2 trailers for $212,000 and a roll off of $164,000.
The Construction fund will see $1.2 million toward a liner installation.
Some of the purchases are carryovers from the current fiscal year because the items haven’t arrived.
Agency Funding Grants
The total dropped from $949,868 to $905,639 the drop is primarily due to the airport for a project that they have added. There are one time awards including $100,000 toward Western Kentucky Botanical Garden, $25,000 for H.L. Neblett Center Academy and $62,000 remaining from a previous grant to Owensboro Museum of Science and History and others.
Summary of Debt
On June 30, 2022, the county’s debt will sit at $11.6 million. Hendrix said that $2.7 million has been received already, which will drop the balance to $8.9 million.
Hendrix said that this number is a rather low number for agencies around Daviess County’s size.
Revenues
The real property goes up $300,000 — $200,000 is the ultimate change while the other $100,000 is to catch up from the last budget.
Excess fees are overstated by $1.5 million for this year because it is the end of a four-year term, however, both the sheriff and clerk’s office’s accounting going through the state and it will balance out.
The County will be receiving their last allotment of ARPA funds in two weeks which is applied to the FY21-22 budget. With that, the FY22-23 budget does not reflect any addition of ARPA funds.
The remainder of the revenues are staying roughly the same Hendrix said and did not go into detail on the items.
County Attorney’s Office
The Office is set to receive $1.4 million but the fiscal court and taxes do not pay the entire amount. The child support reimbursement is about $900,000 and Juvenile Drug Court is split between the City and County.
Other Governmental Offices
Hendrix said the total goes from $2.8 million to $3.0 million primarily due to salary and benefits increases.
The County Treasurer’s office is getting an increase of $35,000 due to reallocations and the cost of living. Human Resources is seeing a couple thousand dollars rise as well.
Information Systems is up $10,000 in the budget to a total of $291,000.
Court House Operations fund is up a small amount according to Mattingly. The Judicial Center however is seeing $417,000 allotted to them, which is down $8,000 from last year.
The WKU-O facility is budgeted $5,000 for repairs and maintenance.
In total, the Governmental Offices budget is seeing a $3 million dollar drop to $9.2 million.
General Health and Sanitation has a deduction of $4 million budgetting them at 1 million dollars for the fiscal year. This is due to the lack of the capital cost needed to add to the animal control building.
General Charity and Welfare increased a small amount — $7,500 for a grant and a $5,000 increase to the dental clinic.
The Tourist Commission budgeted for $540,000, up from last year’s $450,000. This is due to more travel coming to Daviess County. It is offset by a 3% hotel tax.
Transportation Busing Services will receive $300,000 from the Court to then be reimbursed 100%.
The general services fun is up primarily due to professional services and likewise for government agencies.
