Time to read
1 minute
Read so far

Budget, tax rate adopted

0 comments
Albany News

By Melinda L. Lucas

After about 90 minutes of further work on the 2023 budget during a Sept. 19 meeting, Shackelford County Hospital District board members approved combined expenditures of $3,994,467 for the district administration, EMS, health clinic, and pharmacy.

Even though the figure is only about $1,300 more than the amount formally proposed on Aug. 24, it includes several significant line items in each of the separate budgets that had been inadvertently omitted in the proposed budget.

Since then, district administrator Brandi Green and district secretary Regina Whitt have worked to correct the numbers, and with further assistance from Claire Ware and board members during Monday’s session, they found places to whittle down from a deficit of $210,224 to less than $70,000 over the projected income of $3,925,335.

The budget was unanimously adopted on a motion by Mary Beth Jones, seconded by Mike Folsom.

The directors then approved the “no-new-revenue” (NNR) tax rate of 19.24 cents, which was also proposed Aug. 24. The motion was made by Jason Price, seconded by Folsom.

The 19.24-cent rate, which is lower than last year’s rate of 20.67 cents because of higher valuations, is calculated to generate $1,186,733.

The NNR rate is the number needed to raise the same amount of total tax dollars as the previous year based on the same property and does not require any public hearings.

Board Resignation

Director Kayla Herron, who was elected for a two-year term in May 2022, submitted her resignation, stating that she had accepted full-time employment at the district’s clinic and could no longer serve on the board.

Several replacement possibilities were discussed, and the directors decided to invite the prospects to the October meeting before making a decision about filling the vacancy.