At their November session the Franklin County Board of Supervisors approved several midyear financial actions after county finance staff presented an unaudited year-end surplus estimate and departmental carryover requests.

Brian Carter told the board the preliminary unaudited general fund surplus is roughly $3 million and staff recommended restoring $750,000 to the budget stabilization reserve and replenishing capital reserves. Departments requested $2.6 million in carryover; staff recommended funding $1.5 million of department requests using $1.2 million of departmental savings plus approximately $340,000 from conservative revenue estimates.

In a required public hearing the board also approved appropriating $20,715,059 in additional funds related to recent lease-revenue facility borrowing (roughly $20 million to acquire the Modicraft property and other county capital projects) plus a $705,000 FEMA grant for an emergency generator at Benjamin Franklin Middle School. The board voted to amend the FY2026 budget and appropriate the funds.

Separately, after extended discussion about large comp-time accruals in the sheriff’s office, supervisors approved a $125,000 appropriation to begin paying down comp-time balances for the remainder of the fiscal year, adding the sheriff’s office to the county practice of paying overtime in some operations; staff said recurring costs would be revisited during the regular budget process.