Scott County supervisors must figure out how to close a nearly $2.5 million gap between projected income and spending requests in the next fiscal year.
On Wednesday, the county board will discuss the budget that will take effect July 1.
Supervisors earlier worked on the proposed budget during April 1 and April 29 meetings. According to meeting documents, projected income for fiscal 2026-27 is nearly $36.43 million, but departmental spending requests total more than $38.9 million.
Among major income sources, real estate tax income for the coming fiscal year is projected to be about $12.12 million, compared to about $12.32 million in the current budget. Personal property tax income is projected to be about $3.16 million, compared to about $3.04 million in the current budget. Local sales and use tax income is projected to be almost $2.47 million, compared to about $2.42 million in the current fiscal year.
Miscellaneous revenue is projected to be $3.07 million, down from $3.32 million in the current budget.
Significant potential spending increases include:
- County administrators have not received a final funding request from the school system, but for planning purposes, the current draft budget includes $11.75 million for schools. The current budget includes more than $11.15 million for schools, or about $597,000 less.
- The sheriff’s office seeks $3.1 million, compared to a current budget of $2.74 million. The funding request includes $260,000 for vehicle replacement.
- The elections budget request is nearly $304,000, compared to a current budget of nearly $136,000. The department needs more money to comply with federal and state mandates to upgrade voting machine software and hardware.
- County funding requests for volunteer fire departments total $715,500. The current budget allocates $645,500.
- County funding requests for rescue squads total nearly $297,000. The current budget allocates nearly $270,000.
Among projected decreases in spending, the most significant is regional jail costs at about $2.64 million. The current budget for jail spending is $3.16 million. Among the departmental changes, jail operating costs are projected to drop from about $2.47 million in the current budget to about $2.18 million, while debt payments on regional jail facilities are expected to decrease from nearly $509,000 in the current fiscal year to about $453,000.
The board has not made any final decisions on the real property tax rate or other taxes. The draft budget includes a 2% cost-of-living adjustment for county employees, according to Josh Wilson, the county administrator.
The budget meeting will follow the board of supervisors’ regular monthly meeting, which begins at 9 a.m. Wednesday in the county administrative building, 190 Beech St., Gate City. View the agendas for the regular meeting here and the budget workshop here.
