County proposes $25 million for 24-25 year
Mariel Williams
editor@mitchellnews.com
The Mitchell County Board of Commissioners will vote on its 2024-2025 budget on Tuesday, June 25, in a special session at 8 a.m.
The board held a hearing to allow public comment on the proposed budget at the beginning of its June 3 meeting in Bakersville. Around 10 people were in the audience for the hearing but no one signed up for public comment.
“The [proposed] balanced budget is mindful of future growth and has been meticulously crafted to meet the projected needs of all county operations, capital improvements, and statutory requirements,” County Manager Allen Cook said.
This budget totals $25, 355,627. The amended budget for 2023-2024 totals $25,894,570. Cook noted that this represents a 2.1 percent decrease in expenditures projected for the coming year.
“This decrease is mainly attributed to the completion of large grant-funded projects in the current year,” he said.
The proposed budget includes a 56 cents per $100 of property valuation tax rate.
“The tax rate remains unchanged from last year,” Cook said.
The proposed budget estimates sales tax revenue will be $5,141,388, which is also the same as last year. Cook described the estimates of tax revenue as “conservative.”
“This conservative approach is informed by a trend in economic data which predicts sales tax revenue to level off,” he said. “The revenue assumptions in this budget are based on realistic, not optimistic, projections.”
In keeping with the predicted tax revenue, the proposed budget also keeps the county’s expenditures about the same as last year, with a 3 to 5 percent increase for most expenses to match inflation.
“The budget represents our commitment to building a brighter future for all who call Mitchell County home,” Cook said.
Later in the meeting Mavis Parsley, the county’s finance director, noted that most of the necessary amendments for the 2023-2024 budget have already been approved.
“We should not have a very big [amendment] at the end of the [fiscal] year,” Parsley said. “We won’t have one of those big clean-ups at the end of the year.”
The full budget is on display at the Mitchell County Administration Office in Bakersville.