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Quarterly finance report: ad valorem and sales tax collections outperform projections; county used about $4 million of fund balance
Summary
Finance director Kimberly Hunnicutt reported that FY25 ad valorem tax collections exceeded the budget by about $2.9 million and sales-tax receipts outpaced projections by 8%; the county transferred roughly $11 million to the debt fund during the year and ended up using about $4 million of fund balance rather than the $11 million anticipated in the
Kimberly Hunnicutt, Harnett County finance director, presented the county’s fiscal update for the first quarter and summarized the fiscal year ending 2025 during the Oct. 4 meeting.
Hunnicutt reported that ad valorem tax collections for the year exceeded the budget by $2.9 million and were about 7% higher than the prior fiscal year. Sales-tax receipts exceeded projections by 8% and were 7% ahead of 2024, she said. Solid-waste revenues were up about 21% year over year; Harnett Regional’s revenue increase primarily reflected accounting treatment of fixed-asset additions rather than cash inflows.
Hunnicutt said expenditures for the prior fiscal year increased by $18.8 million, with transportation up 57% because of capital purchases for the HART transportation program. She explained that the county transferred $11 million from the general fund to the debt-service fund to ensure debt payments are available when due; that timing of the transfer contributed to higher reported expenditures in the quarter. For the current fiscal year, she reported that revenues through September totaled about $17.6 million, slightly below the same period last year.
Hunnicutt discussed grants and federal funding, noting that ARPA and other one-time federal funds are diminishing, which reduces associated revenues and related expenditures.
She said the county’s unaudited figures for fiscal year 2025 show the county used about $4 million of fund balance, less than the roughly $11 million usage anticipated when the fiscal 2025 budget was adopted. The county maintains a minimum fund-balance policy of 15% with a 20% target to preserve flexibility in the face of federal cuts or other revenue disruptions.
A commissioner added that while the budget assumed $11 million of fund-balance use, the final outturn was closer to $4 million because some anticipated expenditures did not occur. Hunnicutt said she will continue to monitor revenues and expenditures and report results to the board; she described the reported figures as unaudited.
