Monroe County citizens should expect to have the same level of services available to them as usual despite the county receiving some challenging news last week regarding the county’s latest tax digest.
The county’s public utilities, which include Plant Scherer, have dropped in value from just over $1.84 billion in 2021 to just over $1.29 billion in 2022, a decrease of just over $559 million, or 30.3 percent, according to data received by Monroe County Chief Appraiser Bobby Gerhardt from the Georgia Department of Revenue (DOR) on Thursday, Oct. 20. The value decrease is believed to be largely related to the 2022 closure of Plant Scherer’s Unit 4, owned by Florida Power & Light and the Jacksonville Electric Authority. This means that Monroe County’s property tax revenues will drop by about $2.7 million in 2023, which is the equivalent of about 1.6 mills. Public utilities are typically responsible for about 40 percent of the county’s total property tax proceeds.
Due to this significant revenue loss, Monroe County Manager Jim Hedges and Monroe County Finance Officer Lorri Robinson-Byrd are evaluating all options in their creation of a balanced 2023 budget. However, County Manager Hedges said projected revenue increases in other areas will somewhat off-set the anticipated decrease relating from the utilities’ property valuation drop. County Manager Hedges said offsetting the property tax decrease, Monroe County anticipates a $2.2 million revenue increase related to rises in Title Ad Valorem Tax (TAVT) proceeds, Local Option Sales Tax (LOST) proceeds (due to increased collections and a 2% higher percentage being dedicated to Monroe County), life insurance premium tax proceeds (due to increased population), and Probate Court fines.
County Manager Hedges said Monroe County also anticipates 2023 cost reductions in a number of areas including: legal services, rental costs (due to Monroe County’s Health Department no longer needing rental space), utility costs (due to increased energy efficiency), and maintenance supplies (due to completion of the Sheriff’s Office renovation).
As for cost increases in 2023, County Manager Hedges noted that continued local and nationwide inflation is expected to cause rises in the cost of inmate meals, gasoline costs for all county departments, health insurance costs, retirement fund costs, and property insurance costs. In addition, Monroe County will begin paying in 2023 the principal on the $20 million water bond to fund the Juliette water project after only paying interest the past two years. County Manager Hedges also said capital expenditures are expected to rise by just over $200,000 in 2023 primarily related to new sheriff’s vehicles and a pair of new ambulances.
County Manager Hedges said it has yet to be determined whether the county will be able to include within the 2023 budget a market adjustment to the county’s employee compensation plan, and he cautioned that some county positions that are currently unfilled will not be funded in the 2023 budget.
County Manager Hedges said that he and Robinson-Byrd are still in the early stages of the budget process and were certainly thrown a “curveball” last week with the state DOR’s notification regarding utility revenues. However, County Manager Hedges said with direction from Commissioners, they will have a balanced 2023 budget ready for approval by the Board of Commissioners by year’s end with no anticipated reduction in services provided.
Monroe County’s total budget, which was just over $42 million in 2022, encompasses 34 departments, multiple fund balances and over 2,200 budget line items.
