As Orange County Judge Brint Carlton did in his first year in office, he has penned a review of 2016 and the accomplishments of Commissioners Court. The judge discusses subjects like the budget, tax rate, projects, human resources, and more. He also appears on KOGT’s “People in the Know” program every Monday morning at 7am.
First, we need to take a moment to say goodbye to the employees we lost this year. Shannon Pruett of the Juvenile Probation Department passed away on June 14, Captain Tom Ray of the Sheriff’s Office passed away on October 23, and Daryl Broussard of Justice of the Peace Precinct #3 passed away on December 17. We also lost retirees and loved ones of employees and retirees. Here is to hoping 2017 is a happier time for our Orange County Family.
Second, we have continued to make improvements in our financial position, make capital outlay purchases, begin the energy efficiency renovations for our buildings, and prepare for future challenges. I am excited about the progress we have made and look forward to facing the challenges ahead. Here are some of the County’s accomplishments from throughout 2016, proposed projects, and future challenges:
Commissioners Court: – Fiscal Year (FY) 2015-2016 Budget Complete – The FY 2015-2016 budget is complete and worked even better than expected. As you recall, this budget was the first truly balanced budget for the County in over 20 years. The budget was designed to preserve the projected beginning fund balance (BFB) of $6.5 million. The County provided all required services to our residents, purchased an additional $1 million in capital outlay (10 new patrol cars, road and bridge equipment, computer equipment, IT infrastructure, and additional vehicles), and still added an additional $5.1 million to projected FY 2016-2017 BFB. All of this was accomplished without raising the County property tax rate ($0.544/$100) and provided a 1.5% COLA. As a reminder, County budgets are built on projections. The BFB, revenues, expenses, and ending fund balance (EFB) are projections based on three to five year historical data. – FY 2016-2017 Budget – The Court was unable to adopt a balanced budget for FY 2016-2017, but it is designed to keep the County on an overall positive trend in building up the projected EFB. The FY 2015-2016 projected EFB was $6.5 million and the FY 2016-2017 projected EFB is $7.8 million. Further, the Court voted to not increase the County property tax rate ($0.544/$100). The Court will take a similar approach to purchasing capital outlay by using unspent funds at the end of the FY. The overall budget helps the County move closer to attaining the Texas Association of Counties (TAC) recommendation of maintaining 25% of annual expenditures in EFB. The County spends approximately $46 million per year. The County goal for EFB is $11.5 million. The County had 14% in EFB in FY 2015-2016 and has 17% in EFB in FY 2016-2017. These funds are critical reserves in case of a major catastrophe (i.e. Hurricanes Rita and Ike) or costly litigation. As with last year, the Court took the budget process seriously and I personally worked very closely with our Auditing Department to go through each and every line of our budget. The Court held workshops with every department that chose to meet with us and we received a lot of good information. The adopted budget was very tight and the Court incorporated as many budget requests as we could.
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