FARMINGTON — Franklin County commissioners voted Tuesday to accept the Budget Advisory Committee’s $7.7 million spending proposal.
Franklin County commissioners could not come up with a unanimous vote Tuesday to send a $7.7 million budget back to county budget panel to reconsider $191,130 in program grants for outside agencies. From left is newly appointed interim Commissioner Bob Carlton of Freeman Township, Chairman Terry Brann of Wilton and Commissioner Lance Harvell of Farmington. Donna M. Perry/Sun Journal
If any changes were made it had to be a unanimous vote by commissioners to override the budget panel’s proposal and send the spending plan back to the nine-member committee.
Commissioners could not produce a unanimous vote on $191,130 for outside agencies. Commissioners had not included $163,430 in their budget from a local consortium of seven agencies. The organizations had approached the Budget Advisory Committee after the budget had gone through commissioners review.
The organizations were asking for funding to help keep older adults in their homes and active in their communities. Commissioners had approved $27,700 in their budget for nonprofits, with the bulk going to Franklin County Soil and Water Conservation and $3,700 to Franklin County Firemen’s Association.
Interim Commissioner Bob Carlton of Freeman Township made a motion to approve the $191,130 for the grants, but it died for lack of a second. A series of votes with Carlton favoring the full amount for the agencies and commission Chairman Terry Brann of Wilton and Commissioner Lance Harvell of Farmington opposed to spending the money.
In the end there was no unanimous vote on the agencies to enable it to go back to the budget panel. Commissioners stopped funding outside agencies several years ago.
Brann didn’t want to fund the program grants for 2022-23 either.
“They have proven the last two years that they can do without us,” Brann said.
The spending package represents a $681,685.60 increase over the existing budget.
It represents about $5.35 million for county government and $2.34 million for the jail. The figures do not factor in anticipated revenue or use of undesignated funds.
County Administrator Amy Bernard told the budget committee last week that $325,000 will be needed from the undesignated fund balance to keep the county government budget under the tax cap.
She had previously told commissioners an additional $75,000 from the fund balance will be needed to keep the jail budget under the tax cap. The county government budget has a separate tax cap than the the jail.
There is about $2.2 million in the undesignated fund as of last year, Bernard previously said.
Commissioners will take up revenue and the funding to cover the expenses at another meeting.
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