Oconee County Finance Director Melissa Braswell on Tuesday night presented to the Board of Commissioners and the public an $85.5 million total budget for the county for Fiscal Year 2027, up 2.1 percent from the Fiscal Year 2026 budget.
Included is a $49.0 million General Fund Budget, up 7.2 percent from the $45.7 million General Fund Budget adopted last June for the current Fiscal Year.
The bulk of the $3.3 million increase in General Fund spending is for Public Safety, which includes $3.1 million for the county’s new Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Department.
The General Fund Budget is balanced, with new revenue coming from ambulance fees generated by the EMS operation projected at $1.5 million, $400,000 in increased property tax collections, $437,000 from increased Local Option Sales Tax (LOST) collections, and a $311,959 increase in other taxes, included sales taxes on auto purchases.
The budget Braswell presented does not specify a millage rate for generation of the property tax revenue, and that rate won’t be set until the Tax Digest is computed after the start of the new Fiscal Year on July 1.
Board of Commissioners Chair John Daniell said on Thursday that the expectation at present is for “no change in the millage rate.” The current rate is 4.184 for the unincorporated parts of the county and 5.154 for the incorporated areas.
After the meeting, Braswell also released the proposed fee schedule for Fiscal Year 2027, which show a 3.6 percent increase in the basic water rate for residential customers, a 3.5 percent increase for commercial water customers, and a 4.8 percent increase in the base sewer rate for both residential and commercial customers.
Following Braswell’s presentation on Tuesday, the Board held its first public hearing on the Fiscal Year 2027 Budget. A second hearing is scheduled for 6 p.m. on May 19. Adoption scheduled for June 2.
Budget Spending
The Total Fiscal Year 2027 Budget of $85.5 million includes the $49.0 million General Fund Budget, the $4.9 million Special Funds Budget, the $16.1 million Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) and Transportation Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (TSPLOST) Budget, and the $18.9 million Enterprise Fund Budget.
 |
| Braswell During Budget Presentation 5/5/2026 |
The Total Fiscal Year 2026 budget was $83.7 million.
At the meeting on Tuesday, Braswell reviewed each of those budgets.
Personnel and employee benefits make up $28.1 million, or 57.4 percent of the General Fund Budget.
In term of function, spending on law enforcement and the jail is $15.2 million, or 30.9 percent of the total General Fund Budget.
Spending on administration and operations makes up $7.3 million, or 14.9 percent of the budget, and spending on Public Safety is $5.5 million, or 11.2 percent of the budget. Public Safety spending includes the new EMS program.
The largest spending item in the Special Funds Budget is $2.4 million for the Emergency 911 Telephone system.
The largest part of the Enterprise Funds Budget is $16.9 million for the Water Resources Department, which includes water and sewer operations.
Budget Revenue, Sales Tax Spending
The General Fund Budget is based on $20.1 million in property tax revenue, or 41.1 percent of the total revenue, with LOST collections contributing $12.4 million, or 25.4 percent of total revenue.
SPLOST and TSPLOST collections make up those budgets, and the Enterprise Fund budgets are self-funding.
The Water Resources Department Budget shows $16.4 million in revenue and $40,392 transferred from reserves to create a balanced budget.
Budgeted spending from SPLOST revenues for Fiscal Year 2027 includes $1.8 million in payment of bonded debt for Oconee Veterans Park and for the county Administrative Building.
Also included is $2 million transferred to the county’s four cities, which share in SPLOST revenues.
Spending in the Fiscal Year 2027 Budget from TSPLOST revenues includes $6 million for paving and $1.8 million in transfer of funds to the four cities.
EMS Budget
Braswell told the Board she was presenting for the first time a table showing what is being spent in the current Fiscal Year Budget, as amended once the county made a decision to create its own EMS program rather than continue to rely on a private company for those services, as well as the Fiscal Year 2027 EMS budget.
 |
| EMS Budget Presented By Braswell 5/5/2026 |
The Fiscal Year 2026 budget as amended includes $2.1 million for EMS spending, with almost all of that money for equipment for the new program.
The budget for Fiscal Year 2027, which begins on July 1, includes $2.8 million for personnel and the remainder of the $3.1 million in spending made up mostly of operations and maintenance costs.
The revenue from ambulance fees of $1.5 million leaves $1.6 million in new spending.
Braswell labeled that $1.6 million as the “net cost to the county” for taking responsibility for its own emergency services.
At the meeting on Tuesday, the Board confirmed the appointment of Jaron Queen as the county’s first EMS Director.
Queen has 20 years of experience as a paramedic, according to a news release the county sent out before the meeting.
Queen most recently served as a Clinical Base Lead/Flight Paramedic for Air Methods Corporation, providing administrative, clinical, and operational oversight for a medical air transport base, according to the news release.
Zoning Decisions
The Tuesday meeting included an unusually contentious exchange on what appeared to be a routine request by Grace Baptist Church for a special use to allow for a community scale church on 18.1 acres on the southwest side of Hog Mountain Road just short of Goat Farm Road.
Grace Baptist Church currently has a special use for a community scale church on 14.0 acres at 6401 Hog Mountain Road.
 |
| Kikly Before Board 5/5/2026 |
The plan is to add 4.1 acres to that parcel and extend the special use to the combined property.
Bethlehem First Baptist Church Inc. owns the 4.1 acre parcel, which contains a home, and plans to purchase the 14.0 acres from Grace Baptist Church to operate an expanded church on the combined 18.1 acres.
Bethlehem First Baptist Church purchased the 4.1 acres from Melissa and Mitch Braswell on April 1 of this year, according to county tax records.
The county planning staff and the county Planning Commission recommended approval of the request.
Joseph Kikly, who lives at 6461 Hog Mountain Road on a 1.7 acre parcel between the 4.1 acres currently owned by Bethlehem First Baptist Church and Goat Farm Road, spoke in opposition to the request. Unpaved Old Goat Farm Road separates Kikly’s property from the recently purchased residential property.
“I recognize that this decision may already be largely settled,” he said. “It is difficult to imagine a church would invest $680,000 to a small residential parcel property over a month ago without a clear expectation of approval.”
“This proposal introduced a large, well-funded organization into a small residential area, which raises concerns about compatibility and long-term impact,” Kikly said.
No other person spoke against the rezone request, and Board Chair Daniell closed the public hearing after Kikly made his comments.
In response to a question from Commissioner Amrey Harden, Kikly said he had not spoken before the Planning Commission and had not communicated his concerns to anyone in the county prior to the meeting on Tuesday night.
As the Board discussed the request, Kikly called out from the back of the room, and Daniell told him “you’re done talking.”
The Board voted to approve the rezone request, with Harden abstaining, saying he wanted to have a chance to learn more about Kikly’s concern.
Video
Following the zoning hearing, the Board turned to discussion of the proposed truck bypass connecting SR 15 and U.S. 441 south of Watkinsville.
I posted about that discussion early on Wednesday morning and uploaded a video of that section of the meeting.
The video below is of the entire meeting and is on the county YouTube channel.
Braswell began her presentation of the Fiscal Year 2027 Budget at 7:23 in the video.
Discussion of the Grace Baptist Church special use request begins at 36:06 in the video.
No comments:
Post a Comment