Lincoln County Commission amends FY2026 budgets and approves retroactive July 1 pay raises

At a called meeting, the Lincoln County Board of Commissioners approved amendments to the county’s fiscal year 2025–2026 budgets for the general fund and all other funds and voted to make scheduled employee pay raises retroactive to July 1.

The action followed a presentation from the county’s finance director explaining that the county had readopted the FY2025 budget when the FY2026 budget was first considered in June because the tax digest and assessor’s data were not available. The finance director told commissioners the county expected to return within 30 to 60 days to adopt numbers that reflected final tax information.

The county attorney read a resolution titled “Approval of amended annual balance general fund budget for fiscal year 2025–2026,” citing Article 1, Chapter 81 of Title 36 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated and OCGA §36-81-3(d) as authority to amend the budget. Commissioners voted to approve an amended general fund budget in the amount stated during the meeting, and the motion to amend that budget passed on a voice vote; commissioners present responded “aye” and no opposing voices were recorded.

Mister Dawson, the finance director, told the commission that raises for county employees were included in the amended budget and that the county could make those raises retroactive to July 1. Dawson said the county preferred to process the retroactive pay in the last pay period of August to allow time to complete the calculations: “We would not like to pay those until the last pay period in August, to give us time to work through all the calculations.” Commissioners moved and seconded a motion to make the pay raises retroactive to July 1; that motion carried on a voice vote.

The board then considered amendments to “all other funds.” The county attorney read a separate resolution, citing the same statutory authority, to amend budgets for non-general funds beginning July 1, 2025, and ending June 30, 2026. Dawson outlined several specific adjustments during his summary: an increase to the opioid-settlement fund (finance director’s phrasing included multiple numbers), an increase to the E-911 budget, a reduction to the Family Connections budget because a grant was no longer available, a reduction to the ARP fund reflecting prior expenditures, a slight reduction to the hotel/motel fund, increases to a special-purpose account described as “spliced 7” (to receive anticipated revenues), a large increase to the TSPLOST (transportation SPLOST) fund to cover planned road projects and related grants, a small decrease in the water fund tied to water-availability revenue loss, and an increase in the solid waste fund to restore revenue previously used from fund balance. Dawson summarized that the net increase requested across those “other funds” was $3,166,913, bringing the total new budgets for other funds to $9,482,604 as presented.

Commissioner Tangsley moved to approve the amended all-other-funds budgets as presented; the motion was seconded and passed by voice vote with “aye” recorded and no opposition noted. Commissioners then approved a separate motion, moved by Commissioner Clowett and seconded by Commissioner Henderson, to make payroll in the other funds retroactive to July 1 so employees paid from water, solid waste, E-911 and similar funds also receive the raises; that motion carried on a voice vote.

The meeting record shows some transcription inconsistencies in the numbers staff read aloud while summarizing several individual fund adjustments. The finance director’s verbal summary contained multiple close, possibly transcribed, variations (for example, amounts described for the opioid-settlement fund and E-911) that the commission adopted as presented. The finance director explicitly set the requested schedule for retroactive pay processing, and commissioners approved that approach.

No additional discussion items or objections to the budget amendments and retroactivity motions were recorded before the board adjourned.

Next steps recorded during the meeting: staff were to implement the amended budgets and process retroactive pay with the payment scheduled for the county’s last pay period in August to allow payroll calculations to be completed.