BEDFORD – The Lawrence County Council began budget hearings Thursday night.
The 2025 estimated total budget has not been established.
Last year, the Lawrence County Council met and approved the most significant budget the county has ever seen. However, taxes increase yearly, increasing the county’s budget.
The 2024 budget, totaling 35.7 million dollars, went through multiple hearings. The elected council made cuts and changes at its discretion.
- General Fund: $20,011,544
- Grant Fund: $14,487,735
- Fee Fund: $1,207,010
Total 2024 Budget: $35,706,289
Councilman Jeff Lytton commented before the hearings.
Good afternoon, and welcome to the first budget hearing for the 2025 budget year.
Before we begin, I would like to make a few comments. Budgeting is never easy and is often very painful. Most of us heard the consulting firm’s Bakertilly presentation last month. Initially, I did not believe that the Lawrence County general fund would soon be in the red unless things changed.
My disbelief was based on years of being told we had sufficient funds to operate the county. Secondly, to buy into what I was hearing, I had to admit that I was partly responsible for this situation. After combing through the numbers, I am convinced that most of what we heard was accurate. Yes, through the years of allowing our general fund budgeted expenses to be greater than our income and allowing excessive additional appropriations requests, we have been depleting our reserves.
We must maintain an adequate cash reserve because we can never know when an emergency will occur.
We will focus mainly on the county’s general fund, primarily funded by local taxpayers’ property taxes. Although real estate values have increased, the State Legislature continues to cap the amounts that can be collected. We will also review budget requests for funds from other funding sources, such as user fees or Federal or State grants.
This process is not easy, and with your help, we will endeavor to reduce non-essential expenses first to avoid any effect on employees. This county is blessed to have over 350 dedicated and hardworking full and part-time employees.
Our estimated reserve decrease (savings account) is over $1.3 million this year.
With our decisions, we cannot make everyone, even ourselves, happy, but I ask that the members of this body receive the respect they deserve.
The budget hearing schedule for the 2025 budget:
- Thursday, September 5, at 4:30 p.m. in the commissioners’ room of the courthouse.
- Tuesday, September 10, at 4:30 p.m. in the commissioners’ room of the courthouse.
- The Solid Waste public review and public hearing is Tuesday, September 17, at 4:30 p.m. in the commissioners’ room of the courthouse.
- A budget run-through will be held on Tuesday, September 17, at 4:45 p.m. in the courthouse’s commissioners’ room.
- The final budget will be heard publicly on Thursday, September 19, at 4:30 p.m. in the courthouse’s commissioners’ room.
- The Lawrence County and Solid Waste budgets are scheduled to be adopted on Tuesday, October 1, at 4:30 p.m. in the commissioners’ room of the courthouse.
