Members of the Cannon County Budget Committee and the County Executive have been warning the public and the County Commissioners for the past three years of the dangers of allowing the County General Fund Balance to be spent down. At a informative meeting last Thursday, the matter was brought up again in a meeting between members of the Budget Committee, County Commissioners, County Executive Mike Gannon and Cannon County CTAS official Ben Rogers. Budget Committee Member Todd Hollandsworth stated that he told everyone that this was going to happen years ago. Some of the County Commission would say at the time when the issue was brought up in various meetings that the Commission did not want to keep a fund balance. Some even stated that they don’t want to be bankers for the county and that they wanted a minimum fund. Budget Committee member Dr. Bill Jennings was also aware of the dangers however the other Budget Committee member present Jim Bush claimed he was not made aware of the deficiency. County Executive Mike Gannon once again explained the potential trouble. This fiscal year’s budget has been balanced and approved by the state but Gannon stated that the fund balance is too low. The fund balance is used to operate County Government for the first three or four months of the new fiscal year as there is not enough revenue coming in. The County gets a majority of revenue from property taxes, so until the property taxes come in they can use the fund balance to keep services going and pay County Employees. Gannon stated that the previous commission decided a few years ago to start spending down the fund balance. The balance has gotten so low that the County has to do revenue anticipation notices. Counties normally borrow from the fund balance but the money must be put back in the fund balance by June 30th of the current fiscal year. Gannon said that the fund balance is so low this year, they have borrowed all they can borrow at this point. Hollandsworth added that the county does not have a spending problem but a revenue problem and that is a problem that there is not an answer to at this point. Department heads have been told not to make any purchases without consulting with the County Executive’s office.
