Stephens Co. Publishes Proposed FY 17 Budget

An employee pay increase and more money for the county’s rural fire departments are both included in the proposed Fiscal Year 2017 budget for Stephens County.

The proposed budget was published for public review this week.

In it, Stephens County Administrator Phyllis Ayers proposes a graduated pay increase for employees.

The budget as written would give a six percent raise to those making $15 or lessan hour, a four percent raise to those making between $15.01 and $20 an hour, and a two percent raise to those making more than $20 an hour.

Ayers said doing the increase this way will help employees at the lower end of the pay scale deal with a forthcoming increase in health insurance premiums of nearly 14 percent.

“Most everyone that had employee-only coverage and many with employee-spouse or employee-child were able to cover the increase in insurance and have some left over in their paycheck for an increase in their net take-home pay,” said Ayers. “However, those that have the family coverage are the hardest to cover, even with a six percent increase, so we are going to be looking at offering a dual plan that will cover that and then have some left over in the net pay.”

Ayers said that the county commission plans to consider that health insurance option on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the proposed county Fiscal Year 2017 budget also includes a 39 percent increase for rural fire protection.

Ayers said the fire departments have gone many years with no increase and now need funds to take care of needs.

“In the past year, we have gotten to the point with their equipment that we are starting to have some very major equipment repairs,” said Ayers. “I know one station had one that was $6,200 and so it was just time to give them a little more money. We have three new fire stations with this SPLOST money that will be operated to help out with those ISO ratings.”

Ayers said it will also be new that each department will not receive the same amount, but those departments getting a new station will get a different amount of money to cover those extra needs at those departments.

On the revenue side, the county budget proposes to keep the millage rate the same at 13.41 mills.

Ayers said that the tax digest did not go up this year, but it also did not go down for the first time in several years, meaning property tax revenue will remain the same.

“We have seen so many decreases lately that the Chief Appraiser, Tax Commissioner, and I were just happy to see a projected no net change,” said Ayers. “I would love to go back to the days when I first came to the county that we had a three or four percent increase every year. That is very nice to have. We did not have that for a while. We actually had one year of pretty significant decrease, but we are pretty pleased with no net change.”

Also, Ayers said that the Title Ad Valorem Tax is difficult to predict when it comes to how much revenue the county will receive, so she put in a conservative estimate and adds she would not be surprised to see that revenue item bring in an extra $200,000 next fiscal year.

The total Fiscal Year 2017 proposed general fund budget is just under $13.6 million, which is 1 percent higher than the projected Fiscal Year 2016 ending general fund budget of $13.43 million.

Stephens County’s proposed Fiscal Year 2017 budget is online at www.stephenscountyga.com and can be seen at the historic Stephens County Courthouse during normal business hours.

A first public hearing for the proposed Fiscal Year 2017 budget is set for Tuesday at 8:30 a.m.