Officials with Washington County Schools say they have some difficult choices to make following passage of a new county budget for the fiscal year that begins on July 1.
Washington County commissioners approved a new $68.8 million general fund budget on Wednesday that is balanced without a property tax increase. Commissioners also declined to earmark additional property tax dollars to help the school system close a $4 million deficit in its budget for the new fiscal year.
At the same time, commissioners note the county has allocated another $2 million in sales tax collections for education in the budget.
The county’s combined operating budget was passed in a 14-0 vote, with Commissioner Josh Edens absent. Commissioners approved the budget, as well as agreeing to keep the county’s property tax rate at the current levy of $1.71 per every $100 of assessed value, in a special-called meeting lasting a little more than 30 minutes.
Officials from Washington County Schools were among those who spoke Wednesday at a public hearing on the county's new $68.8 million budget.Â
ROBERT HOUK/SIX RIVERS MEDIA
Before the vote, commissioners heard from school officials, who asked the county for help in dealing with a budget deficit.
Jerry Boyd, the county’s superintendent of schools, said the school system has already fallen behind other districts in competitive teacher pay.
“We know we will have approximately $2.5 million of new expenditures in the new fiscal year because of the state-mandated teacher salary increases,†Boyd said. “We also know that will just put our teacher salary scale at the state minimum, but our neighbors have already surpassed us. That has certainly cast a big shadow over our teacher salaries. We’re far behind.â€
He noted that “moving forward, there could be some difficult decisions and reductions in services that our school system provides to our students.â€
Gregg Huddlestone, a member of the county’s Board of Education, told commissioners that without their help, funding for teacher pay and to provide “a sufficient†number of teacher aides and bus drivers will go unmet in the new fiscal year.
He also noted that while county commissioners follow a policy of maintaining an amount equal to four months of expenditures in the county’s reserve fund, they seem to have no problems in asking the school board to keep a fund balance that does not exceed two months of expenditures.
“I urge you to use some of the funds allocated to the four months of expenditures in your reserves to help us meet the needs of our students,†Huddlestone said.
The new operating budget was proposed by the county’s Budget Committee after it spent weeks cutting nearly $800,000 from original spending requests.
The committee also approved moving $1.8 million from capital projects to help balance budget. Those dollars had been previously earmarked for water projects.
Another $6 million was transferred from debt service to erase the remaining deficit. Of that amount, $2 million is earned interest income and $4 million is coming from debt service reserves.
The new general fund budget includes an additional 3% increase that county officials can use for pay employee raises or other needs in their departments.
At their meeting on Wednesday, commissioners also heard from Lorenzo Ramunno, an attorney in Gray, who presented petitions with 1,450 signatures of residents asking county officials to “reverse†the property tax rate set in 2024 and to “cap all future tax increases.â€
Ramunno also suggested county officials could replace tax revenues by levying impact fees on developers.
Keven Vrotney, a resident of Gray, said Washington County should form a “volunteer committee for government efficiency†to cut spending and implement automation in county government.
