County considers FY27 budget with no property tax increase

Washington County has published its 2027 fiscal year budget as recommended by the budget committee for the full commission's consideration on June 18. The proposed FY27 budget will not increase the tax rate for property taxes. The full commission will consider a resolution to keep the property tax rate at $1.71 per $100 of taxable property in Washington County. General Fund The county's general fund has an estimated more than $10 million deficit in expenditures and revenue for the upcoming fiscal year with $74.27 million in expenses. Mitch Meredith, Washington County's director of finance and administration, has told officials the deficit is not out of the ordinary, and the county has budgeted this way for years. The committee approved a transfer of $6 million from the county's reserve into the general fund to help balance the deficit. The county's reserve policy requires a minimum of four months of the prior year's average operating expenditures, with some exclusions, to be in the fund. For FY27, the reserve policy is more than $19 million. The general fund finances more than 50 accounts including general government, majority of county departments, administration of justice, public safety and more. The fund has an estimated 10% decrease in expenses from the current fiscal year and a 12% decrease in revenue. Capital projects fund The county's capital projects fund balance has a more than $3 million deficit between revenue and expenditures with a balance of $8.13 million by the end of the current fiscal year. Expenses in FY27 are budgeted at more than $10 million with revenue budgeted at $7,043,000. This fund helps avoid individual county department budgets from increasing for one-time projects such as building repairs, technology updates and more. Property and sales tax collections Estimated property and sales tax collections for Washington County increased 3% from the current fiscal year. Property tax collections are distributed to the county's general fund, schools, debt service, education capital projects, highway department, capital projects and solid waste. The county budgets for 97% of property taxes to be collected for each fiscal year. The FY27 estimated collections are above what is budgeted at more than $96 million to be distributed between the seven accounts the revenue funds. The estimated rural local option sales tax revenue for FY27 budget is nearly $10 million in total. The revenue from sales tax is split evenly between general government and education. Washington County Schools and Johnson City Schools will split the education revenue in sales tax based on average daily attendance. A public hearing for the proposed budget will be held at 9 a.m. on June 18 in the George P. Jaynes Justice Center followed by a budget committee meeting. The full commission will meet at 5 p.m. on June 18 in the George P. Jaynes Justice Center to consider the budget.