Walker County staff presents preliminary FY2025 audit, proposes budget amendment; commissioners press on road-funding timing

A staff member told Walker County commissioners and citizens that preliminary fiscal year 2025 audit numbers show total general-fund revenue of $36,800,000 and expenditures of $35,300,000, producing a net loss of about $688,000, while the county’s fund balance remained above $24,000,000 and cash in the bank exceeded $18,000,000 as of Sept. 30, 2025.

The staff member said year-to-date revenue of another fund was $14,060,000 (about 37% of expectation) against expenditures of $8,700,000 (about 23.5% of expectation) and reviewed several enterprise and grant-related funds. “So we’re doing pretty good on budget,” the staff member said.

Staff discussed receipts and spending for the road-sales-tax program cited in the presentation (transcribed in places as “T Sploss/T Splast/T Splash”), reporting collections to date of roughly $29.0–$29.5 million with expenditures of about $25.3 million in one fund and, separately, $15.9 million in revenue versus $19.2 million in expenditures for another road-related fund. The staff member said the general fund has supplemented these road projects to keep planned paving work on track.

The staff member announced an upcoming budget amendment (a resolution) required under state law when appropriations would otherwise be exceeded. “This just ensures that we are being transparent and we have control over local government spending,” the staff member said, adding the amendment is routine and the last amendment occurred April 3, 2025. The amendment as described would increase the general-fund expenditures budget from about $34.8 million to $37.8 million and adjust several line items.

Line-item adjustments cited included an increase of about $165,000 to one public-safety line, a $793,000 increase for fire and rescue, a $424,000 amendment for the development authority, a $194,000 amendment for special courts (drug and mental-health court), and a $968,000 increase for multi-grant match requirements. Staff also said a prior-year ARPA/capital grants line was adjusted downward by $13,000,000 to reflect carryover or prior-year accounting.

Commissioners pressed staff on the road-sales-tax shortfall and the county’s paving plan. “So we spent roughly $4,000,000 more than we have taken in on that. Correct?” a committee member asked. The staff member replied, “Yes,” and said the county had fronted paving work from the general fund to accelerate needed repairs and expects the sales-tax cycle to catch up (the staff member noted the cycle runs through 2029).

When another commissioner asked whether the amendment required drawing on fund balance, the staff member said the county would use about $680,000 from fund balance to cover extra expenditures the board previously authorized, such as retirement-related costs. The staff member stressed that these transfers were discussed previously and were planned to come from fund balance.

No formal vote on the amendment was recorded during this exchange; the staff member said the amendment will be brought forward as a resolution for the commission to consider. The exchange ended with commissioners thanking staff and no additional actions taken during the recorded segments.

Next steps: staff will file the budget amendment resolution for formal consideration at a future meeting; no vote or final adoption is recorded in the transcript.