Columbia County holds FY2026 budget hearing; general fund rises just over 3%

Columbia County commissioners held a public hearing May 6 on the proposed fiscal year 2026 budget, with county staff presenting a balanced set of budgets across funds and a General Fund that is roughly 3% larger than last year.

County staff member Mr. Johnson told the board, "you have before you the updated materials from the proposed budget. We'll focus primarily on the General Fund, although I will say we're presenting balanced budgets for all funds available." He said the proposed General Fund increase came after asking departments to hold spending at or below last year.

The proposal was framed around continuing a tax rollback if permitted later in the process. "We did budget this year with a tax rollback in mind," Mr. Johnson said, noting that the board will set the millage rate at a separate meeting.

Why it matters: the budget funds day-to-day county operations and several specific items discussed at the hearing, and the county must advertise the proposed budget and adopt a final budget before the July 1 start of the fiscal year.

Key items and discussion

- Ambulance contract: The budget includes a $600,000 supplement to cover a one-year contract with Gold Cross to continue ambulance service on the county's behalf; Mr. Johnson said the contract "will actually be voted on tonight." The hearing record did not include a vote on that contract.

- Library accounting and funding: The materials show a $300,000 change in how library funds are budgeted in the General Fund. Mr. Johnson explained this is an accounting change rather than additional operating funding: historically the county budgeted about $2,800,000 for the library and transferred funds to the state's portion at year-end as needed; this year the full library amount is included in the General Fund budget and any underspend would remain in the fund as savings. "This is not planning to to change any operations or anything like that," Mr. Johnson said.

- Personnel and supplements: The proposed budget includes a cost-of-living adjustment and several personnel items flagged during review: on-call pay for coroner staff and a retirement supplement for a superior court judge were specifically called out as additions after initial direction to hold promotions and reclassifications.

- Stormwater and capital projects: The stormwater utility fund shows a marked increase driven by planned infrastructure projects; staff characterized this increase as drawing down fund balance to pay for next year’s projects.

- ARPA and Hoover project: American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds already received and subject to spending deadlines were included in the proposed budgets; staff noted ARPA funds must be spent by the end of 2026 and that budgeting now reflects planned ARPA use, primarily tied to the Hoover project.

- Revenue assumptions and millage: Staff used a 5% growth estimate for local option sales tax and for growth in the digest, characterizing 5% as conservative and saying actual receipts may be higher. Mr. Johnson said any additional growth over 5% could be offset by a rollback if the commissioners choose to set one. At the hearing a net millage figure was reported verbally as "4.4 0.568." The transcript does not provide a clarified numeric millage in standard notation.

- Bonds and fire millage: Staff reported a modest decrease in bond levies owing to growth in the digest; the fire department’s net millage was described as unchanged, with digest growth sufficient to cover that department’s needs without a millage change.

- Potential state changes to insurance premium tax: Staff discussed state-level proposals that, if enacted, could eliminate or change the insurance premium tax fund, which the presenter estimated as roughly $12.5 million for local governments; staff said losing that revenue would require either tax increases or cuts to absorb the reduction. The county noted this is a legislative matter being discussed at the state level and not a finalized change.

Process, calendar and next steps

Staff said the county must advertise the proposed budget in the newspaper on May 16 as required by law and planned final adoption at the board’s first June meeting, with the budget taking effect July 1. Mr. Johnson said small technical adjustments remained to be completed before advertising and that staff would bring those adjustments to the board prior to final adoption.

What the hearing did not decide

The public hearing presented the proposed budgets and supporting materials and included discussion; the transcript shows no final vote to adopt the budget at the hearing. The Gold Cross contract was noted as an item to be voted on later the same evening, but no vote outcome appears in this hearing record.

For readers: the proposal maintains contingency reserves (about 2.7% was reported, with the county typically aiming for 2.5%) and emphasizes conservative revenue estimates to preserve options for a rollback when the millage is later set.