Barrow Journal

All six Barrow County commissioners present at Tuesday’s board of commissioners meeting expressed concerns with the Fiscal Year 2018 budget, but the majority of them felt the proposal was satisfactory to carry the county through the next year.
The board voted 5-1 in favor of the $73.18 million total budget, with Chairman Pat Graham in opposition and Commissioner Joe Goodman absent.
“Although I don’t totally agree with it, I can still support it,” Commissioner Ben Hendrix said. “We can’t always agree on everything as a board, but sometimes we have to move forward as a group. All in all, I think it’s going to be a good budget for the coming year. We just need to try to work a little harder next year to address some of the needs and requests that aren’t in (the budget).”
The $39.48 million general fund budget includes an 11.7-percent increase in spending over FY2016, which ended Sept. 30, 2016. Fiscal Year 2017 is a shortened nine-month year. FY18 begins July 1.
There is no tax increase in the budget, as it will include a rollback millage rate designed to offset increases in the 2017 tax digest due to inflationary growth, county manager Mike Renshaw said. The board cannot vote to adopt the formal millage rate until July 25 after the Barrow County Board of Education adopts a school millage rate.
Graham, who called for stronger budget cuts and a 3-5-percent tax decrease, said Tuesday the amount of growth in expenditures over the last nine months concerned her.
Commissioners Billy Parks and Bill Brown voted in favor of the budget, but said they were disappointed in the absence of several requests across various departments in the budget.
See the full story in the June 21 issue of the Barrow News-Journal.