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Murphy – Cherokee County commissioners’ main job is watching over how taxpayer dollars are spent, but this year that job may be a little harder.
Since July 1, 2023, commissioners have made $230,269 in spending decisions that they will have to either cut or include in the coming budget year.
That money includes $17,000 the board approved to pay on-call stipends for sheriff’s investigators, $162,284 in added spending for Cherokee County Schools and a $50,985 to cover increased operating expenses in the sheriff’s office.
The board also approved $26,113 for two paid internship positions with the Department of Social Services and $471 to cover flag football recreation league insurance.
Commissioners vote on an annual spending plan they count on to guide them, but sometimes things come up that they can’t anticipate. In those cases, the board will consider budget amendments that include the new expense, the purpose and where the money will come from.
Balancing the county budget is a tricky thing under normal circumstances. Every department comes forward with budget requests during the budget planning cycle, which must be completed in time for the new budget to take effect on July 1.
Some of those requests are successful, but almost no county department comes away from the budget process unscathed. This has been particularly true since the county agreed to a multimillion-dollar out-of-court settlement involving DSS.
Twenty-six lawsuits were filed against the county in 2018 and 2019, stemming from the use of custody and visitation agreements by DSS officials to place children outside of their parents’ homes without court approval. After the county lost the first few lawsuits, the board unanimously approved a $48.5 million settlement – including $24.25 million not covered by insurance – in 2022 to resolve more than 20 remaining lawsuits.
The settlement added an additional 8 cents to the county’s millage rate this year – an increase expected to last nearly a decade. Cherokee County agreed to pay $4 million of the settlement by Feb. 15, 2023, then pay about $2.9 million per year beginning in July 2024 and ending in 2031. The $256,853 the board spent in 2023 would add two-thirds of 1 cent to county taxes.
Complicating the budget process are higher costs for goods and services that the county must cover no matter what – things like food, health care and transportation for jail prisoners, repairing roof leaks at schools, replacing patrol cars; the list is long.
And right off the bat, commissioners will be staring down $256,853 in expenses that were approved in 2023 but outside the normal budget cycle.
County Commissioner Cal Stiles asked Candy Anderson, the county’s chief financial officer, to crunch the numbers after the board approved an exemption to the county’s pay structure to keep a sergeant from getting a $1,700 per year pay cut for being promoted to investigator.
The board touched briefly on whether it should increase pay for all the sheriff’s investigators, which triggered Stiles into making the request. The board opted against giving all sheriff’s investigators $1,700 raises.