Commissioners present:
Chairman Ted Godwin, Tony Braswell, Jeff Carver,
Patrick Harris, Butch Lawter, Chad Stewart, and Larry Wood
Absent: none

Adopted budget, without a tax increase,
raises county assistance to non-profits

Commissioners adopted the 2020-21 budget for the County of Johnston during a brief special session Monday evening that indicated final details had been worked out in advance following two previous meetings (June 1 and June 8) that included presentations from heads of agencies appealing for more money.

Commissioner Jeff Carver, who had been designated as the board's budget negotiator this spring, made the motion to approve County Manager Rick Hester's proposed budget with the following additions:

• $2 million for the public schools --- an amount Mr. Carver said "should position them well" when combined with money left unspent from the school system's current operating budget. That brings total county appropriations to $72 million for operations and $800,000 for capital projects other than major construction funded by bond issues. (The school board had requested $76,423,852 for Current Expense and $1,204,504 for Capital Outlay.) The 2019-20 county budget initially appropriated $67,945,918 for school operations, supplemented by extra funding amounting to $3.8 million over the past several months.
 
• $200,000 for capital outlay at Johnston Community College as requested last week by JCC's President David Johnson. That brings total county contributions to the college to $750,000 for capital projects along with $4.5 million for operations.

• Extra funding for non-profits including $10,000 for Johnston County Special Olympics, $75,000 for My Kid's Club, $25,000 for the Johnston County Partnership for Children (a revised total of $50,000), $1,000 for the Tobacco Farm Life Museum, $50,000 for Harbor (a revised total of $75,000), and $21,000 for the Smithfield Rescue Mission. Requests for those funds were heard during the board's June 8 session.

• $20,000 more for first-responder "pool funds" allocated to Johnston's fire departments based on call volumes, raising the coming year's total to $140,000.

To bring the amended budget back into balance, Mr. Carver's motion included a provision to add $2.5 million in new revenue "from the recent bond premium." (According to the county's Finance Department, the June 2 sale of $20 million in county-issued bonds for school construction produced net proceeds more than $2.8 million beyond the par amount because of unusually low interest rates offered by bond buyers.)

At the end of Monday's session, Commissioner Butch Lawter sent thanks to the school board and staff "for their transparency" in working toward an agreement on the amount of school funding for the year ahead --- a process Chairman Ted Godwin said went "much smoother" than what commissioners have experienced in recent years.

Editorial comment about the new county and town budgets on OBSERVATIONS>

BASIC TAX RATE UNCHANGED; RATES AND FEES RAISED

The new budget keeps the county's property-tax rate of 76 cents per $100 valuation unchanged for another year following last year's tax increase that resulted from countywide revaluation of real estate.

Water and sewer rates are going up July 1 for customers of county-operated water and sewer systems. For a residential customer using 5,000-9,000 gallons a month, the rate for water will rise from $4.55 to $4.80 per thousand gallons while the base sewer charge for most residents will go from $26.50 to $30 and the rate per thousand gallons (based on water use) from $5.95 to $6.55 per month.

System development fees for builders of new residential subdivisions are going up from $1,800 per lot to $2,750 for water service and from $3,800 per lot to $4,090 for sewer. In addition, developers' required contributions to the county's Open Space Fund are rising from $400 per lot to $800 as a result of a provision in Commissioner Carver's motion Monday evening to adopt the budget.

Mr. Carver's motion also raised property-tax rates in two rural fire districts: Strickland's Crossroads, from 8 cents to 10 cents per $100 valuation; 50-20, from 6 cents to 8 cents per $100.