More Money for Road Repair in Mid-Year Budget

Photo of road maintenance (Georgia DOT photo)
(Georgia DOT photo)

Road repairs will see a boost this year in Henry County. The county commissioners approved $3.75 million for road repairs during the FY 2024 mid-year budget adjustment.

The additional funding amounts to $625 thousand per district. The county chair will also have a portion for her projects.

FY 2024 Mid-Year Budget Adjustment

Henry County’s FY 2024 budget was $232 million dollars. The board adopted this budget last spring. The budget spans from July 2023 to June 2024. After the board’s mid-year adjustment, the FY 2024 budget is now $239 million.

It has become accustom the last few years for county staff to present a mid-year budget adjustment in February. The mid-year budget adjustment considers unforeseen costs the county has incurred. There also exists an opportunity to fund new items. For example, the adjustment included raising library staff pay. Library staff had been asking for a raise for several years.

Revenues were available to fund new expenses because of higher property tax collections. The county has seen $7.9 million in property taxes above its original estimate. There is also interest revenue and ambulance revenues contributing another $1.8 million.

More Money for Road Repair

Henry County staff had proposed to set aside $7.5 million for future bond repayment. This relates to the public facilities authority. The authority is looking at bonds to pay for new county buildings. The facilities authority was created by local legislation in 2023. It held an inaugural meeting in August.

Commissioner Kevin Lewis suggested instead the county allocate half of the above $7.5 million for road repair. He commented about the state of local roads and the need for additional maintenance. Following discussion, a majority of the board supported his plan. The commissioners voted 4-2 (Anglyn and Harrell opposed) to allocate $3.75 million for road maintenance. Action occurred at the February 6 meeting.

At the February 20 meeting, commissioners adopted an updated resolution to clarify the $3.75 million shall be used for road maintenance. Which roads will see repairs is based on a technical scoring completed in 2021. At the time, the county contracted with a third-party company to evaluate all county roadways. This provides a technical scoring between 0–100 for each road. More info about the scoring, and to see the scores for each road, is on the county website.

The county expects to share an update soon which roads will be included in the additional work.

Featured image shows road resurfacing. Georgia DOT photo.

About Clayton 1739 Articles
Clayton Carte is the founder and owner of The Henry Reporter. He founded the site in 2017 to highlight transportation projects. Over time, he began covering other topics like new development so residents can best know what’s happening in our community.

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