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County manager outlines year-end budget amendments, reallocations and increased disaster recovery estimate
Summary
Burke County's manager briefed commissioners on a year-end budget amendment that reallocates prior grant match funds, returns leftover equity from completed projects to the general capital fund, and adds an estimated $2 million to the county's disaster recovery estimate to cover lingering FEMA-eligible invoices.
County manager Brian Maggard told commissioners on June 2 that the county will present a year-end fiscal 2024-25 budget amendment at the regular meeting to clean up several accounting items and reflect updated disaster recovery costs.
Maggard said the amendment contains no new appropriations but moves money among funds to close out the fiscal year. He described several items to be addressed: withdrawing from a long-running FEMA administration grant (described in the meeting as a federal emergency management administrative grant of approximately $2,400,000), reallocating a $1.1 million local match that had been earmarked for the Indian Hills pump station to the county's water/sewer capital fund, and returning residual equity from finished projects to the general capital fund (Eastbrook convenience site: about $179,000; courthouse project and 201 Avery/PAS protective services: about $65,009).
Maggard also said the county will add an estimated $2,000,000 to its disaster recovery fund to cover invoices related to debris collection that were still being processed after the state assumed debris operations on the state's crossover date. He said contractors continue to submit invoices from February and March that the county must pay and include in public-assistance applications to FEMA.
Staff emphasized these are internal reallocations and housekeeping items rather than new spending. Maggard said the county's prior strategy used Clean Water Trust Fund proceeds and other sources to cover matches for water projects and that some grant-match decisions have changed with evolving FEMA mitigation and reimbursement expectations.
The county manager said notices and the full budget document will be available online and at libraries and senior centers ahead of the scheduled public hearing on the 2025-26 budget. No formal vote on the year-end amendment was taken at the pre-agenda meeting; the item is on the consent agenda for the regular meeting.
