Mount Olive board accepts budget draft
By Steve Herring
Published in News on May 3, 2016 1:46 PM
MOUNT OLIVE -- The Mount Olive Town Board Monday night accepted the town's $6,889,426 budget draft opening it up for 30 days of public inspection.
Copies of the budget will be available for public review at the town clerk and town manager's office during business hours 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. People can ask questions about the budget as well.
A public hearing on the budget will be scheduled following the 30 days. State law requires that a budget be adopted by June 30 for the coming fiscal year that stretches from July 1 to June 30.
The draft retains the current tax rate of 64 cents per $100 worth of property value. That rate is expected to generate $214,810,054 in tax revenues based on an estimated collection rate of 95 percent.
By fund the budget includes: general fund, $3,740, 224; water and sewer fund, $2,735,056; Powell Bill Fund, $148,059; airport fund, $161,237; and Waylin Fire Fund, $104,850.
The budget draft includes an across-the-board 2.5 percent pay increase for all employees.
It also includes a fee of $16.60 for town residents who use the rollout container service.
The draft continues a built-in 2.5 percent increase in water and sewer rates in July and again in January. The rates have increased in both of those months since approved by the board in 2008.
The Local Government Commission has expressed concern that the town's water and sewer rates are not adequate to cover operating expense and debt service.
The commission has indicated the two annual increases would address those concerns.
Even with the increases, the town still has one of the lowest water rates in the state and the sewer rates are at or below the statewide median, Town Manager Charles Brown said.
It is possible that the July rate increase might be the last one needed, he said.
"The Local Government Commission is going to come down on our heads if we don't cover that operating expense and debt service for the water and sewer fund," Brown said.
The draft does not include any privilege license revenue since the state General Assembly has yet to provide any relief to replace that revenue wiped out when it did away with the fees.
The town was unsuccessful in its attempt last year to implement $6,500 in business registration fees as an acceptable alternative to the privilege license, but was told no by the legislature.
The draft budget reflects a fund balance of $2,419,437 as of June 30, 2015, an increase of $147,739 over the previous year. The draft shows an unrestricted fund balance of $1,301,816.
That is a marked change from a decade ago when the fund balance was just $2,312.
"We watched our spending," Brown said of the turnaround. "I am not so sure that the economic downturn in 2008 and 2009 wasn't a blessing in disguise for us because it made us back up and take stock and be very, very careful about what we did with our money.
"I think from that point on we have built that fund balance."
In other business Monday, the board unanimously approved resolutions for two separate $150,000 state grants for drinking water and sewer asset management.
"This will be a grant that will allow us to complete our inventory of our water and sewer lines in the ground, have those mapped out," Brown said. "We will use this to come up with a 20-year capital improvement plan for our water and sewer.
"It will be a huge asset going forward when we apply for funding for our water and sewer systems because we will have this all in place. We will have an inventory of everything that we have and have that capital improvement plan going forward."
The board also met in closed session to "discuss the price and other material terms of a contract or proposed contract for the acquisition of real property by purchase, option, exchange or lease."
Commissioner Kenny Talton recused himself from the discussion and did not attend the closed session.
No action was taken following the closed session.