Oconee County Finance Director Melissa Braswell released the first draft of the Fiscal Year 2026 General Fund Budget at the Board of Commissioners meeting on Tuesday night showing an increase of $694,695 in projected spending over the Amended Budget for the current fiscal year.
Revenue is projected to increase over the Amended Budget largely as the result of growth in sales tax, but the General Fund Budget requires the use of $310,000 in Fund Balance to be balanced at $45.7 million.
Revenue from property taxes is budgeted to increase only by $242,870 in part because of the floating homestead exemption approved by voters statewide in November and an increase in county-specific homestead exemptions approved by voters in May of last year.
Board of Commissioners Chair John Daniell said after the meeting that the estimate of the county tax digest, upon which the property tax revenues are based, remains tentative because of an initial error in state calculations of the floating exemption. He said that the digest estimates without those state exemptions is largely fixed.
The overall county budget, which includes the General Fund as well as revenue and expenditures from the county’s self-funding Water Resources Department and from the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) and Transportation Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (TSPLOST), increased by $7.1 million, or 9.2 percent, to $83.7 million.
Included in the fee schedule that accompanies the budget is a proposed 3.5 percent increase in residential water rates and an 5.3 percent increase in residential sewer rates.
Braswell released the budget at the Board of Commissioners meeting on Tuesday, where the Board approved a rezone of nearly 50 acres on the north side of Barnett Shoals Road east of Watkinsville for a 12-lot residential subdivision at a more intense zoning category than had been recommended by the planning staff.
The Board also approved a $250,000 design services contract for a roundabout on Hog Mountain Road at Wellbrook Road and for a median at Hog Mountain Road at the U.S. 441 interchange.
Budget Hearing
Braswell gave an overview of the Fiscal Year 2026 Budget at the beginning of the regular Board of Commissioners meeting on Tuesday.
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| Hood Before Commissioner Mark Saxon, County Clerk Holly Stephenson 5/6/2025 |
Following the presentation, the county held the first of two required public hearings on the budget.
Four citizens spoke.
Jeff Morgan asked about availability of the budget details. He was told the budget is available online.
Suzannah Heimel asked about the face recognition software included in the Sheriff’s Office budget and was directed to the Sheriff for details.
Blake Underwood thanked the Board for including its funding for the School Resource Office Program in the budget. Ninety percent of the funding comes from the Board of Education.
Jeff Hood asked if there was new funding for the District Attorney Office. Board Chair Daniell said the budget includes $150,000 for an Assistant District Attorney assigned to the county.
Budget Schedule
The second hearing will be held at 6 p.m. on May 20 before the Board of Commissioners Agenda Setting meeting. That meeting also will be at the County Administrative Building, 7635 Macon Highway, north of Watkinsville.
The Board is scheduled to adopt the budget at its meeting on June 3. The current Fiscal Year ends on June 30.
The budget presentation on Tuesday did not include a statement of the proposed millage rate, or property tax rate.
Board Chair Daniell said after the meeting that the rate will be set once Oconee County Tax Commissioner Jennifer Riddle finalizes the tax digest, or the value of taxable property in the county.
At present, Daniell said, Riddle is waiting on the corrected state calculation of the effects of the floating homestead exemption on the tax digest. The floating exemption is designed to limit the effect of inflation on property assessments.
Daniell said Riddle has completed her work on the tax digest and is only rechecking her work while she waits on the state for a final calculation of the impact of the statewide exemption.
At the Board of Education meeting on Monday, Chief Financial Office Peter Adams said he was not able to present a budget to the Board because of the error in the state’s calculation of the impact of the floating homestead exemption on the tax digest.
Oconee County Schools has decided to opt out of floating homestead exemption, so Riddle has to calculate two different tax digests, one for the county with the floating exemption and one for the School Board, without the floating exemptions.
The latter is largely complete, Daniell said, while the county used an earlier estimate of the tax base with the floating homestead exemption in creating its budget.
Tuesday Presentation
Braswell spent just more than 30 minutes Tuesday night reviewing a PowerPoint presentation of the budget.
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| Braswell Before Commission 5/6/2025 |
The original General Fund Budget adopted by the Board a year ago was for $40.7 million, so the proposed $45.7 million budget for Fiscal Year 2026 represents an increase of 12.2 percent.
As the year had progressed, the Board amended that Fiscal Year 2025 Budget to reflect revenue and expenditure increases. That amended budget is $45.0 million, and the proposed Fiscal Year 2026 Budget is $45.7 million.
The total Fiscal Year 2026 budget for the county is $83.7 million, with $1.1 million taken from fund balance to cover spending.
The adopted total Fiscal Year 2025 Budget was $76.6 million, with $1.6 million from the Fund Balance.
The total Fiscal Year 2026 budget includes $7.2 million in SPLOST spending and $10.9 million in TSPLOST spending.
SPLOST spending includes $0.7 million in debt service for the General Obligation Bond for Oconee Veterans Park and $1.1 million for debt service for the county Administrative Building.
Also included is $2.0 million for roads, streets and bridges, $0.5 million for Law Enforcement vehicles, and $0.9 million for Fire Rescue Facilities and Equipment.
The TSPLOST spending includes $6.0 million in paving.
Rezone
Underwood, who had spoken during the tax hearing, also was before the Commission on Tuesday asking for the rezone of 49.96 acres he owns at 2153 Barnett Shoals Road.
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| Underwood Before Commissioners Amrey Harden, Saxon, Clerk Stephenson 5/6/2025 |
The property, zoned AG (Agricultural) is undeveloped and contains an abandoned house constructed in 1860, according to tax records. Underwood said in the rezone narrative he plans to demolish the house.
Underwood was asking the Commission to rezone the property from AG to AR (Agricultural Residential), and he presented a concept plan showing 12 residential lots on a single road off Barnett Shoals Road.
Nine of those lots are just slightly larger than two acres in size, with one of the lots at the rear just less than eight acres, another at just less than seven acres, and the final one just less than 14 acres.
Underwood said after the rezone hearing that he plans to use one of the large lots at the rear of the subdivision for his own home.
The AR zoning allows lots of two acres in size.
The county planning staff had recommended that the rezone be approved, but only on the condition that the property be zoned AR-3 for lots three acres and larger.
The property falls into Country Estates Character Area on the 2023 Oconee County Comprehensive Plan, and the planning staff said that residential lots of less than three acres are not consistent with that Plan.
Hearing
During the rezone hearing on Tuesday, Frank Pittman, representing Underwood, and Underwood himself, said that there is little market demand for three-acre lots.
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| Horton 5/6/2025 |
They also objected to another condition of the rezone recommended by the planning staff, and also by the Planning Commission, that the storm water ponds needed for the subdivision be placed on a separate, unbuilt lot rather than at the rear of lots sold to homeowners.
Four people spoke in favor of the rezone on Tuesday, and two spoke against.
Dan Magee, speaking in opposition, said he had no problem with the development but was opposed to demolishing a historic home on the site.
Heimel, who spoke at the tax hearing, said she was objecting to the hearing because, she claimed, improper notification had been given by letter and via signage at the rezone site.
Response And Vote
Underwood, following the public comments, said Magee could have the historic home if he wanted it.
“That structure is in very, very, very rough shape,” he said. “It hasn't been lived in for a long time. So we're going to see what we can do with it. But it is available for anybody that wants it. I hope this is publicized and they can call me and come get it.”
Oconee County Planning Director Guy Herring said letters had been mailed to neighbors informing them of the rezone hearing and that, while a had been knocked down, staff put it back up as soon it became aware of the problem.
In an exchange with Commissioner Chuck Horton, Pittman said that Underwood could have 15 or 16 lots on the property if he were to carve the acreage up into three-acre lots, but the density of the current design with 12 lots is an average of greater than four acres per lot.
“The book may say, or recommend, three acres per lot,” Horton said. “But in my opinion, if he were to do that, he adds traffic to Barnett Shoals Road. What he's doing is eliminating at least four houses.”
The Board of Commissioners approved the rezone to AR on the condition that no more than 12 lots be developed. It removed the requirement that the storm water retention ponds be on a separate lot.
Hog Mountain Road
County Administrator Justin Kirouac told the Commission on Tuesday that Hog Mountain Road as it reaches U.S. 441 is “seeing a lot of interest in development rezoning. And so, as part of that, we're trying to get ahead as far as transportation planning efforts.”
The county commissioned a transportation study of the area, Kirouac told the commissioners in a memo before the meeting.
“And so with that, we're looking to do a Wellbrook Road roundabout at Hog Mountain Road,” he said, “which would also include a median divider along Hog Mountain Road going into U.S. 441.”
Kirouac said after the meeting that the purpose of the median would be to prevent traffic from crossing Hog Mountain Road as the Road approaches U.S. 441.
He also said the roundabout at Wellbrook Road would be designed so that it did not take any property from the University of Georgia farms at that intersection.
The Commission awarded a design services contract of $195,000 for the roundabout and $55,000 for the raised median to Carter Engineering, 1010 Commerce Drive, off Mars Hill Road.
At the meeting on Tuesday, the Board also awarded a contract of $505,404 to Reams Enterprises Inc. of Atlanta for repairs at the Civic Center.
Included is replacement of carpet in the performing arts theater, installation of luxury vinyl plank flooring in the rotunda, banquet room, and theater dressing rooms, and renovation of the concession area.
The Board also approved its consent agenda from its April 29 meeting, spending $1.7 million across 10 projects, including for roundabouts at Cole Springs Road/Clotfelter Road and SR 53 (Hog Mountain Road), at Union Church Road and New High Shoals Road, and at Colham Ferry Road and Astondale Road.
Colham Ferry Road
Jeff Morgan, who spoke at the tax hearing, came forward during the public comment section of the regular meeting on Tuesday to talk again about safety on Colham Ferry Road.
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| Morgans Before Saxon, Stephenson 5/6/2025 |
Jeff Morgan, whose 17-year-old son William died in a single-car accident on Colham Ferry Road on March 4, had spoken to the Commission at its meeting on April 1, asking the Board to “come back next month and tell me what's going to happen and what changes are going to be made” to the road.
Jeff Morgan was accompanied by his wife, Jennifer, and they asked again what the county is going to do to reduce speeding on Colham Ferry Road and to make the intersection of that Road and Astondale Road safer.
Commission Chair Daniell said that plans are underway to make that intersection a roundabout.
Jeff Morgan said that he wants that intersection converted to a four-way stop immediately. At present, only traffic on Astondale Road is stopped.
“Give me the postal diggers, two bags of concrete, and two stop signs,” Jeff Morgan said. “I'll do it on my Saturday off. I'll put the signs up there. It's not that hard and it saves lives. And it's just temporary until you get the real thing done.”
Video
The video below is on the Oconee County’s YouTube Channel.
I also video recorded the meeting, and the still images used above are taken from frames in my video.
Because the audio for the county’s recording is better, I have embedded it below.
The meeting starts at 4:57 in the video.
Comments from citizens on budget begins at 31:18.
The Morgans began their comments to the Board at 36:35.
The rezone hearing begins at 47:55 in the video.
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