While a number of departments and county offices came in well under their FY 2024 budgets, several others required budget amendments to account for unexpected expenditures, in some cases, totaling millions.
The data from FY 2024, which ran from July 1, 2023 to June 30, 2024, shows the end-of-year budgeting results of the county departments and constitutional offices in Effingham County.
GENERAL FUND
For the General Fund budget overall, Commissioners approved $47,930,660 in appropriations for different departments and county offices. Budget amendments, either mid-year or at the conclusion of the fiscal year totaled $2,999,499 for a total amended budget of $50,930,159. Though budget amendments were made, actual spending over the approved budget came in at 102.33%, or $49,046,004.
$1,115,344 – the total amount spent over the General Fund budget initially approved by commissioners.
Notably over budget were the the Sheriff’s Office, the County Manager, Fleet Maintenance, and Inmate Medical Services.
Departments/Offices Under Budget
The following data is organized by the lowest % use of approved budget amount to highest for those that came in under budget. Note that the excess funds set aside for ‘other agencies’ ($1,422,206) was reallocated to make up for budget overages elsewhere.
| Departments/Offices Under Budget | FY 2024 Approved Budget | Actual Amount Spent | % of Approved Budget |
| Probation | $425,833 | $63,770 | 15.0% |
| NOTE: This is an outlier. | Commissioners voted to privatize probation services on 7/20/23, 3 weeks into FY24 and 2 months after FY24 budget was approved | ||
| Other Agencies | $2,705,974 | $1,422,206 | 52.6% |
| Geographic Info Systems | $484,252 | $298,758 | 61.7% |
| Board of Equalization | $20,583 | $13,509 | 65.6% |
| Coroner | $105,299 | $69,291 | 65.8% |
| Information Technology | $1,484,417 | $1,130,187 | 76.1% |
| EMS | $5,422,885 | $4,629,610 | 85.4% |
| Tax Commissioner | $1,021,192 | $874,396 | 85.6% |
| State Court | $381,968 | $336,211 | 88.0% |
| 4-H Extension | $258,839 | $230,392 | 89.0% |
| Tax Assessor | $1,360,077 | $1,215,450 | 89.4% |
| Probate Court | $552,354 | $509,451 | 92.2% |
| Magistrate Court | $694,677 | $640,616 | 92.2% |
| Title 3 Home Delivered Meals | $135,350 | $127,194 | 94.0% |
| Supeior Court Clerk | $1,002,117 | $952,232 | 95.0% |
| Finance | $800,024 | $762,741 | 95.3% |
| Juvenile Court | $347,315 | $331,988 | 95.6% |
| Family Connection | $54,500 | $52,500 | 96.3% |
| Solicitor | $410,664 | $396,021 | 96.4% |
Departments/Offices Over Budget
NOTE: Reason listed is as it was provided by the county finance department in an Open Records Request.
Sheriff’s Office
The Sheriff’s Office has a number of components which make up its budget, including the Sheriff’s Office fund, School Resource Officers, the jail, and a portion of court services. Court services, however, is not broken down as a line item for the purpose of this article or the data requested in the records request. As a result, it is not factored into the ‘Sheriff’s Office’ budget analysis.
NOTE: In a mid-year budget amendment, $135,000 budget for the jail was reallocated to the School Resource Officer budget.
| FY 2024 Approved Budget | Actual Amount Spent | % of Approved Budget | Difference | Reason | |
| Sheriff | $12,121,213 | $14,958,067 | 123.40% | $2,836,854 | GASB 87 non-cash vehicle lease expense |
| School Resource Officers | $1,207,011 | $1,340,083 | 111% | $133,072 | New SROs |
| Jail | $5,064,828 | $4,610,693 | 91% | -$454,135 | personnel |
Departments/Offices at Exactly 100%
NOTE: The District Attorney’s Office for the Ogeechee Circuit entails Bulloch, Effingham, Jenkins, and Screven counties. This amount is for the Effingham part of the budget and is not representative of the whole office budget.
| Departments/Offices at Exactly 100% | FY 2024 Approved Budget | Actual Amount Spent | % of Approved Budget |
| District Attorney’s Office | $551,825 | $551,825 | 100% |
| Human Resources | $586,475 | $586,475 | 100% |
SPECIAL FUNDS
| SPECIAL FUNDS | Org. Approved | Actual YTD Exp | % Orig | |
| SPECIAL TAX DIST XFERS | $1,265,813 | $580,000 | 45.8% | xfers, not needed |
| SANITATION | $4,819,963 | $5,044,272 | 104.7% | trash bill, fee offset |
| PUBLIC WORKS (ROADS) | $2,860,300 | $3,241,326 | 113.3% | equip maint., supplies |
| REC & SPORTS MNGMT | $1,653,599 | $1,773,828 | 107.3% | supplies, utilities, concession revenues up |
| PARKS & LANDSCAPES | $1,162,631 | $1,242,361 | 106.9% | GASB87 expenses |
| E-911 | $1,722,720 | $1,613,926 | 93.7% | |
| FEDERAL DRUG | $50,000 | – | 0.0% | |
| SPLOST ROADS | $1,708,000 | $1,492,546 | 87.4% | roundabouts |
| SPLOST BUILDINGS | $0 | – | 0.0% | |
| SPLOST RECREATION | $1,838,346 | $462,806 | 25.2% | |
| SPLOST EQUIPMENT | $1,267,175 | $674,183 | 53.2% | |
| DEBT SERVICE | $9,851,409 | $9,851,409 | 100.0% | |
| SPLOST DRAINAGE | $3,066,000 | $510,393 | 16.6% | |
| FIRE DEPARTMENT | $9,631,936 | $9,088,715 | 94.4% | |
| WWTP | $2,098,810 | $1,878,466 | 89.5% | |
| SPLOST TECHNOLOGY | $0 | – | 0.0% | |
| IMPACT FEE RECREATION | $0 | $46,858 | 0.0% | CEM gym, finishes out impact fees |
| SPLOST CITIES | $5,000 | – | 0.0% | |
| SPLOST WATER&SEWER | $1,697,000 | $891,576 | 52.5% | SPIP water main |
| WATER AND SEWER | $9,302,776 | $8,438,764 | 90.7% | old augusta ext. |
| W&S PROJECTS (BOND) | $2,448,000 | $762,833 | 31.2% | |
| DATE | $17,900 | $2,300 | 12.8% | |
| SHERIFF SPECIAL REV | $510,000 | – | 0.0% | |
| DRY WASTE & RECYC CENTER | $69,000 | $112,959 | 163.7% | |
| JUVENILE SERVICES | $2,500 | – | 0.0% | |
| AMERICAN RESCUE PLAN ACT | $11,134,000 | $3,829,850 | 34.4% | |
| STATE DRUG | $50,000 | $1,205 | 2.4% | |
| JAIL CONSTRUCTION | $70,000 | – | 0.0% | |
| PRISON COMMISSARY | $240,000 | $304,980 | 127.1% | offset by commissary sales |
| DEVELOPMENT SERVICES | $1,897,989 | $2,259,227 | 119.0% | engineering, non-cash GASB87 expenses |
| SENIOR CITIZENS | $209,287 | $203,862 | 97.4% | |
| HOSPITAL INDIGENT | $3,600,000 | $3,548,890 | 98.6% | |
| HOTEL MOTEL | $30,000 | $42,618 | 142.1% | |
| SPLOST 2021 | $54,721,629 | $17,465,280 | 31.9% | LMIG 2024 grant list |
| TSPLOST 2020 | $20,487,449 | $9,285,674 | 45.3% | |
| TSPLOST 2023 | $0 | $16,310,932 | 0.0% | new TSPLOST bond, cities share |
| STORMWATER UTILITY | $80,000 | $137,260 | 171.6% | masterplan grant proejct |
| SELF-FUNDED INSURANCE | $7,950,660 | $7,919,750 | 99.6% | |
| PROBATION FUND | $0 | $6,142 |
