GATE CITY – After a month of government discussion on budget balancing, Scott County has its FY 2026 budget on deadline.
The county Board of Supervisors voted 7-0 Monday to approve the $38.82 million county general fund and capital projects budget, which includes $11.15 million in local share funding to the county school system.
Assistant County Administrator Bill Dingus concluded a two-month term as acting county administrator Monday, answering board questions and guiding the supervisors through the final approval process. New County Administrator Joshua Wilson watched the meeting from the audience section.
Wilson, a Scott County native who was town manager for Buffalo Falls, Minnesota, said after the meeting that he was still meeting with county staff and familiarizing himself with county priorities.
The new budget – effective Tuesday under the state fiscal year beginning July 1 – includes $875,000 in funding for fire and EMS agencies in the county. That amount included $225,000 in unspent school system funds from the 2024-25 fiscal year that the supervisors requested from the school board.
Supervisors Chair Chris Maness said the school money did not affect the division’s local share budget request of an overall $76,98 million school/cafeteria/Head Start budget. After the $225,000 return to the county, Maness said, the county provided the needed local match for state funding of a 3% salary increase for school employees.
All local tax rates remain level from FY 2025 to the FY 2026 budget:
- Real estate/manufactured homes – 77 cents per $100 of assessed value
- Public service corporation - 77 cents per $100
- Personal property - $1.65 per $100
- Merchant’s capital – 72 cents per $100
- Machinery and tools - $1.15 per $100
The overall county budget – including state and federal grants and state Compensation Board funding for the four constitutional officers: sheriff, Commonwealth’s Attorney, commissioner of revenue and treasurer – is $122.88 million
A draft budget released June 23 balanced a $1.511 million deficit by drawing on uncommitted county general fund money to avoid raising local taxes.
Convenience center monitoring
District 1 Supervisor Darrell Jeter asked Dingus whether surveillance cameras at some of the county’s 14 convenience centers were being used to catch people for illegal dumping or scavenging from dumpsters.
Dingus said recordings from the cameras have been used to track and charge offenders, although the county does not have enough manpower to monitor the cameras at all times. Using the cameras is cheaper than assigning county personnel to man the centers during all opening times, he said.
The county and Sullivan County are working on a memorandum of understanding to allow recycling at Sullivan County’s new recycling center, Dingus said. The Board of Supervisors could consider reducing the number of convenience centers from 14 to seven and installing compactors at those centers, he said.
Cutting the number of centers would reduce the number of workers needed while cutting back on scavenging, Dingus said.
