Data presented at a Whitfield County Board of Commissioners meeting last week indicates that the local government’s year-to-date (YTD) Local Option Sales Tax (LOST) collections were up by more than 6% compared to the previous fiscal year.
“These are kind of year-end, but there will be year-end adjustments because of the accounting and the audit coming up,” said Whitfield County Chief Financial Officer Debbie Godfrey at a Feb. 12 public meeting.
At the end of December 2023, the local government reports $15.4 million in YTD LOST revenues and $5.3 million in YTD vehicle tax revenues. At that point in the fiscal year, total YTD revenues were tabbed at $58.4 million, marking a 10.39% increase over the revenue collections figures from a year earlier.
At the end of December 2023, the county government reported $55.4 million in total YTD expenses, representing a roughly 1.34% increase over the expenses figures from the previous fiscal year.
The county government projected about $52.9 million in total revenues — with the actuals for Dec. 31 eclipsing that mark by well over $5 million. Expenses were projected at $54.7 million, with the Dec. 31 actuals coming in at about $55.4 million.
“The 2023 revenue was $5.5 million greater than we had budgeted,” Godfrey said. “And our expenditures for 2023 were $732,000 more than budgeted, which this leaves a surplus of $4.8 million — but we do have some amendments that we made in January that will decrease it by $2.5 million.”
The higher than anticipated expenses, Godfrey said, were across county departments and could largely be attributed to inflationary increases.
“We also had better retention than we expected, which is a good thing,” Whitfield County Board of Commissioners Chairman Jevin Jensen said. “But it was a little bit higher on the salaries, too — I think 1.3% off is a pretty good percentage, but I’d rather it be zero.”
The bulk of the $2.5 million referenced by Godfrey, Jensen said, was reinvested in the county government’s pension fund.
“We don’t know where that will put us but my personal guess is around 98% funded,” he continued. “But it will be in the high 90s, regardless.”
As of Dec. 31, the local government’s actual fund balance was listed as $35,501,371. That’s a slight decrease from the figure as it stood on Nov. 30, at about $35.8 million.
“But again, without those budget amendments, that will take it down by, probably, $2.5 million,” Godfrey said.
Whitfield County’s Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) 2020 receipts at the end of December totaled $73,494,261.
Bond debt service at that time was tabbed at $20,330,726.
“Our projected expenditures were $44.2 million,” Godfrey said. “We had reached our bond debt service for the year but of course, we’ll start that over in January.”