SNOW HILL – With increased revenue projections and the decision to fund the school system at the maintenance of effort level, officials have eliminated the deficit in Worcester County’s proposed budget.
By the close of a work session last week, the county’s proposed budget, which initially faced an $11 million shortfall, featured a $400,000 surplus. For the first time in several years, the county will not need to use surplus from prior years to balance the budget. Instead, that surplus will go toward the cost of the school system’s other post employment benefits.
County officials began reviewing the proposed $241 million budget in March. At last week’s budget work session, Chief Administrative Officer Weston Young said budget work sessions were held March 28 and April 11. On April 18, the commissioners heard budget requests from the Worcester County Board of Education and fire and EMS companies.
“When totaled, the budget requests exceeded projected revenues by over $11 million,” Young said. “We held a public hearing on these requests and projected revenues on the night of May 2. We heard from a variety of citizens and stakeholders. This document before you now includes efforts made by myself and our budget team to close this gap as well as updated figures based on recent information.”
He said a committee of county staff had reviewed the proposed budget and made about $1.9 million in cuts in various areas, bringing proposed expenditures down to $239 million.
In addition, the committee increased the county’s revenue projections to $235,890,227.
“At a high level, we’ve increased our revenue projections by $5.7 million,” he said. “This is primarily tied to an updated income tax estimate as well as proposing to use some of our casino revenues to fund debt service and one-time public safety requests.”
Those changes brought the deficit to about $4 million. That shortfall, however, was eliminated when the commissioners voted 4-2 to approve not the school system’s requested budget but rather maintenance of effort level funding of $100 million.
Commissioner Joe Mitrecic questioned projected room tax revenues.
“I think we’re getting a lot of pre- booking room tax in now and I’m concerned that for august and September stays we’re not going to get that room tax at that point in time,” he said.
Staff, however, said that while there could be irregularities related to timing, overall projections should hold true.
The FY 2024 budget is expected to be adopted in early June before going into effect July 1.
