Etowah County Commission approves record budget of almost $25 million for coming year
The Etowah County Commission this week approved an almost $25 million budget — the largest ever for the county, according to Chief Administrative Officer Shane Ellison.
The budget is almost $2.9 million more than last year's, coming in at an exact figure of $24,412,264. County Chief Financial Officer Kevin Dollar said the largest anticipated increases in revenue came from ad valorem tax, county sales tax, and online sales tax.
The budget will give county employees a 2.5% raise, Dollar said, and it includes a 6.4% increase in the cost of employee health insurance, which the county will absorb, along with a $140,000 increase in retirement costs.
The sheriff's department budget increased by $541,328, to $6.9 million. Dollar said that includes vehicle purchases and fuel cost increases.
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Last year, the sheriff's office didn't have vehicle purchases because Sheriff Jonathon Horton opted to buy vehicles for school resource officers in the preceding year. This year, purchases will be needed. The sheriff's office also will absorb a couple of employees from the constable's office when it is abolished at the end of the year.
The jail budget increased as well, by more than $2 million. Some of the increase is associated with the end of Immigration & Customs Enforcement's tenure in the county jail. Corrections officers previously paid through the ICE agreement will now be funded by the county. Costs for in-house medical care will be up as well, because of changes after the ICE agreement ended.
"It was a challenge this year," Dollar said, preparing the budget. There were a lot of cost increases, such as office supplies. As county officials have discussed leading up to the budgeting process, changing prices for materials and supplies have changed the outlook when bidding contracts.
Ellison said companies that previously bid for a three-year contract will only bid for one year now if they bid at all. The company that supplied the paper products, including toilet paper, didn't bid this year because prices had gone up so much after it was locked into the bid that it was paying the county to use its products.
Dollar said last year the county's funding from Rebuild Alabama — which comes from the increase in the gas tax — was about $1.3 million; he anticipates this year the county will get $1.5 million.
All Rebuild Alabama money must go toward road projects, either for materials or contract work.
When it was time to approve the budget, District 4 Commissioner Tim Ramsey voted no, and he said it was because the budget does not provide enough money for paving roads. Previously, he said, there had been money enough to pave five or six miles of road each year; Rebuild Alabama has made it possible to pave about 20 miles.
It's not enough, he said.
"I want someone else to be upset about this," Ramsey said. "Our roads are in terrible shape and keep going down. I want to look at the history of that."
This article originally appeared on The Gadsden Times: Rising costs drive Etowah county's 2022-2023 budget to all-time high
