Fannin County government is currently operating at around 8% under budget as of year-to-date through May.
“That’s good that we are, because if you look at the revenue that we anticipated for this year, through May it’s off 2%,” Board of Commissioners Chairman Stan Helton said during a meeting Tuesday, April 23. “That’s not as bad as what we thought it would be at this point. Although, we’re still not through the year. We’re not through the summer. Obviously that number, to me, is a little more positive than what we’ve seen in previous months.”
Post Two Commissioner Glenn Patterson said, “It could be worse, the revenue is just off 2%.”
The county’s LOST and SPLOST revenue is up slightly more this year than last year, with the county bringing in $324,217 in LOST funds and $428,046 in SPLOST funds during May.
“That’s about 2% ahead,” Helton said. “We were really doing very well about the mid-point of March when the COVID-19 hit, and we had to restrict a lot of tourism into the county, which affected so many of our tourism and service related businesses. From mid-March through the end of April, that period was very bad on revenue, but May and those numbers are starting to come back.”
Post One Commissioner Earl Johnson agreed that the May collection was a good sign.
“It’s a very good sign that that’s at this point in our SPLOST and LOST collection,” Johnson said. “It’s a very good sign that it’s only off by that amount of percentage. Let’s just hope that the money continues to come in, and we stay on the line we’re on now and hopefully it will maybe get a little better.”
Helton said that all county departments are “looking real hard at their budgets” in acknowledgment of the current economic changes due to COVID-19. He said, “We’re just hoping we can keep on through this and continue to keep the county on a solid footing financially, and certainly all of our department heads by watching their budgets and keeping those costs down as best they can. That’s going to be a big help. If you told me two months ago that we would be sitting here with our financials looking this good, I would have been very amazed, but thank the good Lord we’re in pretty good shape right now.”