Latest / Saluda County Unplugged / The County Budget Part 5 - How to Read a County Budget
Transcript
- Josh Morton: 80 pages, rows of account numbers, words like appropriations, debt service, and reserved balance. And somewhere in there, a line that says balance zero. Which doesn't mean that Saluda County has zero dollars. Good. That would have made this a very different episode. Today we're opening the actual county budget and showing you how to read it without becoming an accountant first. This is Saluda County Unplugged. Welcome back to Saluda County Unplugged, where we shine a light on Saluda County government. I'm Rachel. And I'm Josh. This is the bonus episode in our budget series. And today we're doing something a little different. Instead of talking about one service or comparing one year to another, we're going to walk through the actual fiscal year 2026-2027 budget book. You don't need to have the document open to follow along, but if you do, we'll give you page numbers so you can see exactly where the information comes from. Our goal is not to read all 80 pages to you. That would be less of a podcast and more of an endurance event. Our goal is to teach you the basic map. Where does the money come from? Where does it go? And what the difference between a general fund, debt service, capital reserves are, and what do all those account numbers actually tell you? By the end of the episode, you should be able to open this budget, choose a county service you care about, and trace the numbers for yourself. So let's get started. Let's open the budget book. The first thing to note is that it's organized in layers. Pages two through four are the table of contents. Every department is listed alphabetically along with an account number and a page number. Pages five through twenty-five contain the budget ordinance itself. That section shows the expected revenue, the summary of proposed expenditures, the rules governing how the money may be used, debt service, and capital project reserves. Pages 26 through 76 are the department pages. This is where a department's total is broken into salaries, benefits, supplies. Contracts, equipment, and other operating expenses. And pages seventy seven through eighty define the account categories used throughout the document. That layout gives you a shortcut. If you want the big picture, begin with pages six through twelve. If you want to know what a particular department plans to spend, use the table of contents and go straight to that department. If you find an account title that isn't clear, Use the definitions at the back. You do not have to begin on page one and march through every line in order. In fact, unless you have a very unusual idea of a relaxing evening, we don't recommend it. At all. There is one more thing to check before you trust any budget document. Make sure you know which version you're reading. This book covers the fiscal year beginning July first, 2026 and ends June 30th, 2027. Page twenty five shows the complete process. First reading on april thirteenth, second reading on may eleventh, a public hearing on june eighth, and a third reading on june twenty second. That tells us this is the adopted budget, not an early proposal from the middle of the budget process. First up, let's take a look at revenue beginning on page six. The budget divides the county's general fund revenue into two broad sections. Intergovernmental Revenue and Local Revenue. Intergovernmental Revenue is money expected from other levels or units of government. In this budget, that includes the local government fund, state reimbursements, emergency preparedness funding, school resource officer funding, state library aid, and several other sources. Together, those items total three million eighty nine thousand eight hundred and sixty six dollars. Local revenue begins on page seven and continues on to page eight. That section includes property and vehicle taxes, but it also includes EMS collections, building permit revenue, court and probate fees, airport rent and aviation fuel sales, recreation revenue, franchise fees, and other local sources. That total revenue is sixteen million one hundred and thirty thousand nine hundred and seventy two dollars. Add that to the intergovernmental revenue, and the general fund total is $19,220,838. This is a good place to remember something we discussed throughout the series. The county budget is not funded by one giant property tax line. Property taxes are the largest single local revenue item in this document at $8,937,621. Vehicle taxes add another $1,638,373. But those are two lines in a much larger revenue picture. If you want to understand who is paying for a service, do not stop at the total. Look for the revenue source connected to it. And be careful with revenue that has a matching expense. The airport, for example, expects $188,000 in aviation fuel revenue. On the airport expense page, the county budgets $180,000 to purchase aviation fuel. The revenue does not make the expense disappear, and the expense does not mean the entire amount is coming from general tax dollars. Both sides need to be shown for the budget to tell the full story. Now turn to page twelve where the general fund summary ends. The page shows total appropriations of nineteen million two hundred twenty thousand eight hundred and thirty eight dollars. It shows estimated revenue of nineteen million two hundred and twenty thousand eight hundred and thirty eight dollars. And underneath that it says the balance is zero. That last line is easy to misunderstand. It doesn't mean that the county expects to finish the year with an empty bank account. It It doesn't mean that the county has no reserves, and it doesn't mean every dollar will definitely be spent. What it means is that the budget is balanced. For every dollar the county is appropriated or authorized for a purpose, the budget identifies a dollar of expected revenue. The ordinance uses an important phrase on page nine. The money is appropriated if so much be necessary. In plain language, a budget is permission and a plan. It sets the maximum amount available for an approved purpose based on the revenue the county expects to receive. It is not the same thing as a year-end report showing exactly what was collected and what was spent. That distinction is one of the most useful tools you can bring into any government budget. A budget is forward looking. Actual financial statements are doing the backward looking. The budget says what the county expects and authorizes before and during the year. Actual results tell you what happened after the transactions took place. Those numbers will not always match because revenue can come in above or below estimates, and departments may spend less than the amount available So if you see a department budgeted for $1 million, the accurate statement is that Up to $1 million was appropriated for that department's approved purposes. It is not automatically accurate to say the department already spent $1 million. The budget book answers: what may the county spend and how does it expect to fund that plan. For actual spending, you would need financial reports, expenditure records, or the annual audit. Pages 9 through 12 group departments into broad areas such as judicial and law enforcement, finance agencies, public safety, public works, and culture and recreation. That summary is useful for orientation, but it does not explain what a department's total actually buys. For that, you go to the department page. Let's use roads and bridges as an example. The summary on page 11. Shows a roads and bridges budget of $1,199,504. Then pages 61 and 62 break that total apart. The largest line is salaries and wages at $560,255. Pensions are $146,842, and insurance is $101,227. The department also budgets $188,000 for soil and gravel, $71,000 for automotive operating expenses, $46,200 for machinery and equipment repairs, and smaller amounts for pipe, cutting edges. Bridge materials, tools, uniforms, training, and other operating needs. Those details change the meaning of the total. Roads and bridges, 1.2 million, is technically correct, but it doesn't tell you that the money supports employees, materials, fuel, repairs, road signs, and the daily operation of equipment. At the bottom of the page, you also get a source of funds note. It says $19,250 comes from the National Forest Fund. $11,240 comes from driveway application and installation fees. And one million one hundred and sixty nine thousand fourteen dollars comes from the general fund. That note helps answer two different questions. What is the department spending money on and where is that money expected to come from? You can repeat that process for almost any department. Find the total in the summary, go to the department page, read the line items. Then read the notes underneath them, especially the descriptions and the source of funds. These notes often contain the most useful plain language information in the entire book. For example. The Solid Waste page explains that its seven hundred and fifty-three thousand four hundred and thirty-one dollar special contracts line is primarily tied to the Tri-County Solid Waste Authority. The Building Codes page shows a $302,000 safe built contract and says the department's source of funds is charges for service. And the airport page shows that rent and fuel revenue cover most of its $216,220 budget with $11,480 coming in from the general fund. This is also where those five-digit account numbers become helpful instead of intimidating. The same expense code is used across departments. Account 00001 means salaries and wages. Account 00017 means. means automotive operating and maintenance. Account 00065 means professional services. Account 00072 means special contracts. The glossary on pages 77 through 80 defines those categories and in many cases gives examples of what belongs in them. But remember that an account category is a bucket and not always a complete explanation. Special contracts could mean software support in one department, fire service agreements in another, billing services for EMS, road sign replacement for roads and bridges, or the Tri-County Solid Waste Authority. That is why the notes on the individual department pages matter. The account code tells you the type of expense, the department notes tell you what it means in that particular office. Now let's clear up another common source of confusion. Page 8 lists general fund total as $19,220,838. But then it adds a debt service of $509,724 and shows a grand total of $19,730,562. Why are there two totals? Because they describe different funds and purposes. The general fund pays for the county's regular operating services, employees, supplies, contracts, utilities, public safety operations, courts, roads, solid waste, recreation, and the other departments we've discussed. Debt service is shown separately on page 22. The county expects $509,724 in property and vehicle tax revenue for that fund, and the same amount is appropriated for public safety note payments associated with the detention center. Once again, the page shows a zero balance because the expected revenue and planned expenditure match. It does not say the debt is zero. pages twenty three and twenty four show capital project reserves. These balances are held for larger, longer lived needs rather than the ordinary day to day operations. For example, the infrastructure reserve begins at two hundred fifty two thousand one hundred and fifty three dollars. The budget proposes using eighty thousand dollars for an information technology server replacement. Leaving a proposed balance of one hundred seventy two thousand one hundred and fifty three dollars. The heavy equipment reserve shows two hundred seventy three thousand three hundred and seventy two dollars in deposits, interest, and transfers, with that amount scheduled for payments on two motor graders, two tractors, a small wheel loader, and a backhoe loader. The county buildings reserve begins at two hundred and fifty five thousand six hundred and twelve dollars. Includes a proposed $151,289 expenditure to EDCON Incorporated for the EMS headquarters and leaves a proposed balance of $104,323. The public buildings repair reserve begins at $454,177 and expects another $328,848 from four mills of property and vehicle taxes. After proposed magistrate stair and flooring repairs and multi-complex floor repairs totaling $51,700, the proposed remaining balance is $731,325. There's also a county ambulance reserve with a proposed balance of $26,439 and no expenditures planned from it in this budget. This is what people mean when they say that not every government dollar is interchangeable. Some money is budgeted for regular operations, some is set aside to make debt payments, some is held in a named reserve for equipment, buildings, ambulances, infrastructure, or another approved capital purpose. And some revenue may be limited by law, grant terms, and ordinance, or the purpose for which it was collected. The budget book does not place one giant stamp marked restricted on every affected dollar. Instead, you recognize those limits by looking at the fund name, the revenue source, the reserve name, the ordinance language, and the purpose listed beside the expenditure. So when someone asks, the county has money in a reserve, why not use it for something else? The next question should be which reserve, where did the money come from, and what is it legally or formally set aside to do? So let's turn all of that into a simple five-step method for reading the county budget. Step one, check the fiscal year and the status of the document. Is it a proposed budget, a first reading version, or the budget adopted after final reading? Numbers can change during the process, so make sure you know which version you're looking at. Step two, find the major totals, but do not stop there. In this book, the general fund is $19,220,838. Debt Service brings the combined budget and debt service total to $19,730,562. Knowing which total someone is quoting prevents a lot of confusion. Step three, choose the service you're interested in and move from the summary to the department detail. the summary tells you the size of the department's budget. The department pages tell you what makes up that number. Step four, trace both sides. Read the expenses, then look for the source of funds note or the related revenue line. A department total tells you what is available to spend. It does not, by itself, tell you how much comes from property taxes, fees, grants, state aid, service charges, or another source. And step five, translate the accounting words before drawing a conclusion. Appropriation means spending authority for an approved purpose. Estimated revenue is what the county expects to receive. Debt service is money used to make principal and interest payments on debt. A reserve is money held for a future or designated use. And a zero balance on a budget schedule usually means planned revenue equals planned spending. It does not mean the bank account is empty. There is one unofficial sixth step. Ask for context. Budgets are public documents, but a line item cannot always tell you why a cost changed, whether equipment is being replaced, how a contract works, or what operational problem a department is trying to solve. That context may come from a budget work session, a council meeting, a department presentation, an audit, or a public records request. Reading the document is the beginning of an informed question, not always the end of one. So, Josh, after working through the full budget book, what is one thing you want listeners to remember? That every total has layers. The grand total is not the same as the general fund total. A department's appropriation is not the same as its actual spending. A revenue line is not necessarily unrestricted money, and balance zero does not mean the county is broke. The words around the number often matter as much as the number itself. I think mine is that the budget becomes much less intimidating once you stop trying to read it like a novel. Use the table of contents, start with one service, trace its total to the department page, read the notes and the funding source, then use the glossary when an account category is not clear. You don't have to understand every page before you can ask a good question about one part of the budget. Well, folks, that brings us to the end of our five-part budget series. We began with the services the county budget supports. We followed a 911 call through the public safety system. We looked at the work county government is doing while most of us go about our day. We compared this year's budget with last year's budget. And today, we gave you a practical way to read the document for yourself. Transparency is more than placing numbers in a PDF. It also means giving people enough context to understand what those numbers represent, where they came from, and what questions to ask next. Thanks for listening. Have questions or an idea for an upcoming episode? Email us at publicinfo at salutacounty.sc.gov. And remember, the truth is out there. Sometimes it's on page 77. We'll see you next week.