As other communities around America struggled to cope with a downturn in the economy, Bell County wrapped up its year with $4.98 million more in revenue than was anticipated.
“This reflects the strong economy we enjoy here,” County Judge Jon Burrows said. “We’re not struggling at near the level of other places.”
The entire $4.98 million is not windfall for the county as the Commissioners Court drafted a budget last year that projected expenditures to outpace revenues by $1.5 million.
In addition, high fuel costs earlier this year led three of the four road and bridge precincts to spend more than was projected. To offset increased expenditures commissioners approved a budget amendment that called for $1 million to be added to road and bridge funds.
Overall, expenditures in the general fund outstripped projections by $592,043 - an amount that might be more of a concern if revenues hadn’t increased at a much more dramatic pace.
As it is, the increase in expenditures was only 12 percent of the increase in revenues.
County officials said the strong showing was more than just a reflection of the local economy.
Burrows said that each year commissioners employ a budget strategy that conservatively projects revenues and aggressively projects expenditures.
The areas with the largest revenue increases over projections included indigent health, sales tax and fees.
Indigent health saw an increase of more than $1.6 million over projections. That increase is tied directly to the area retail and housing markets as the county is required by the state to apply eight percent of property and sales taxes toward indigent health care.
Sales taxes increased at a clip of seven percent more than projections with the county bringing in $927,330 more than what was anticipated. The county collected 14 percent more in fees, or $821,857 more than anticipated.
As for the final budget amendment, the only source of revenue that came in lower than projections was interest income, which is tied to the national markets. It came in at $260,331 less than what was anticipated.
Those projections were made in June 2007 when the U.S. market looked a lot stronger than it does now, County Auditor Donna Eakin said.
Some $2.8 million of the revenues would be rolled back into the general fund and used in next year’s budget, Mrs. Eakin said.
The county’s fiscal year ended on Sept. 30, about the time the U.S. market began fluctuating wildly.
All of the budget numbers are pre-audit. An official end of the year report is scheduled to be released in February, Mrs. Eakin said.
Asked if the county could maintain such a strong showing next year, Burrows was cautious with his answer. He said commissioners would continue to employ conservative budgeting strategies, but it’s too early to effectively predict how the county would be doing at the end of September 2009.
An early gauge that officials look at is sales tax revenue, which Burrows said continues to climb.
