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Forsyth County balances budget
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Cumming – Forsyth's Board of Commissioners officially cut their general fund budget by $6.2 million to achieve the legally required balanced budget.
Chief Financial Officer Bill Thomas said the revenue stream had last been set at $84 million. Declines in just about every revenue source, especially sales taxes and fees paid by developers, cost the county millions of dollars.
"General fund cuts now provide sufficient cuts to balance the budget," Thomas said.
The county finishes the final quarter of the year with a $77.9 million budget.
He said all departments and elected officials were asked to cut their individual budgets by 5 percent.
"That has caused significant difficulties," Thomas said.
When Thomas and County Manager Doug Derrer asked the departments to show where they got the 5 percent cuts, "a lot of them couldn't even make it," Thomas said.
Judicial, for example, could not cut that much. The workload, dependent on the number of cases filed in the county, can't be cut. Public works, however, with a high level of operating expenses, could make the cuts and more.
The county got $1.5 million of the cuts by removing that amount from its contingency fund, leaving just $500,000 in contingency funds for the last quarter of the year.
Staff reductions and the resulting decreases in salaries and benefits – including cutting the number of paid holidays – helped Thomas and his staff reach the necessary level of budget cuts to balance the budget.
"This budget was a combined effort of every department head in this county," Thomas said. "They really worked hard to do this."
Thomas said he could put the numbers together, but the department heads and elected officials had to find ways to reach those numbers.
"They really stepped forward. This isn't just paper money," he said.
Commission Vice Chair Jim Harrell added his appreciation before the board voted to approve the budget resolution on a 3-1 vote, with Commissioner Jim Boff opposed.
Tags: Cumming, Forsyth County
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