Meriwether County staff outline $3.3M fund‑balance plan, warn of LRA spending deadline

County administration presented a draft budget framework at the Aug. 10 work session that includes a planned transfer from fund balance of roughly $3.3 million, and said about $2.0 million of that is LRA funds that must be spent this coming fiscal year to preserve FY28 LMC allocations.

"You'll see a transfer in from fund balance is gonna be about 3,300,000," said the county administrator (S3), noting that $2,000,000 of that money is LRA‑restricted and must be spent this year. S3 advised commissioners the finance team will run the numbers to fine‑tune revenue and expenditure estimates before the advertisement and public hearing schedule in September.

The administrator said spending the LRA funds as required will likely reduce the county's months‑of‑reserve from about six months to roughly four or five months but emphasized the county remains financially stable and has adequate reserves. The board was given a schedule: advertisement must run Sept. 11, a balanced budget must be ready by Sept. 16, and a public hearing is planned for Sept. 29.

S3 urged commissioners to begin department‑level budget meetings over the next five weeks so staff can return with detailed proposals and recommended funding sources. No final votes were taken at the work session; staff will return with updated, line‑item numbers.

Next steps: staff will provide detailed budget scenarios to commissioners and schedule one‑on‑one budget meetings starting next week, with a possible second round of meetings if consensus is not reached.