MOUNT VERNON — On Thursday, the Knox County commissioners approved a Fiscal Year 2025 general fund budget roughly $2 million higher than in 2024.
Estimated revenue is $27,333,977. However, the commissioners only appropriated $27,228,771. The unappropriated $105,206 will become part of the carryover for FY 2025.
County Administrator Jason Booth does not know the carryover yet because the county has to pay one more payroll and other bills before Dec. 31.
However, he anticipates it will be close to the 2024 carryover of $12 million.
Booth said the good thing about the budget is it is balanced.
“I think the majority of the budget is in line with standard inflationary factors. Nothing was out of the ordinary or a major increase,” he said.
“The biggest increases were insurance and then we had a new capital bond. That was probably close to half of the budget increase for 2025.”
Booth said the departments did a great job of budgeting their needs.
“The key is accurately budgeting. We have taken contingencies out of departmental budgets, and we budget contingencies in one line item that you see and I see for transparency,” he said.
“We try to get them to budget accurately, but if we have an emergency or an unforeseen event, they know that we can help them cover that. But I think it makes each departmental budget much more accurate and transparent.”
Stabilization fund
The budget stabilization fund (103) is a subset of the general fund (100) and was not included in the appropriations the commissioners adopted on Thursday. The commissioners can appropriate up to 5% of the prior year’s revenue.
Booth will know early next year the final revenue number for 2024 and will determine the amount the commissioners could put into the fund. The commissioners will decide whether to fund the account.
Under the Ohio Revised Code, the fund cannot hold more than 5% of the prior year’s revenue.
The fund can only be used for retirement payouts (such as sick leave, vacation time, or payment instead of comp time) or salaries in years with an extra pay period.
Fiscal Year 2025 Expenses
Buildings & grounds had the biggest year-over-year increase, increasing 25.28% compared to 2024.
The higher expense includes $367,000 for bond repayment. Early this year, the commissioners issued $2 million in bonds to cover capital improvements in county buildings. Improvements include replacing boilers, windows, heat pumps, and hot water tanks.
Booth previously said the reason for issuing bonds was to have future taxpayers pay part of the cost and to protect the county’s cash position.
Additionally, the bonds carry a 3.5% to 4.5% interest rate. When the county issued them, the interest rate on investments was 5.5%.
The investment interest rate has declined but is still favorable.
Insurance increased by 18.97%, partly due to higher premiums. However, he also noted that more employees participated, and some switched from single to family coverage.
In 2024, the commissioners doubled the Knox County Job & Family Services appropriation to $1 million because the children’s services levy failed in November 2023.
For FY 2025, they appropriated an additional $58,183 to cover state mandates.
Fiscal Year 2025 Revenue
Sales tax remains the biggest revenue source, comprising 45.75% of the budget.
Property taxes ranked second. With the property reappraisals, tax revenue jumped to 25.2% of estimated revenue vs. 20% in 2024.
Depository and investment income increased from $700,000 to $1.1 million.
Booth said the economy is the most significant potential risk because sales tax accounts for 46% of revenue.
Children’s services placement costs and inflation are two other risks the county will monitor.
Booth expects to release the FY 2025 non-general fund budget in January.
