The Warren County Board is working on finalizing a proposed budget for the next year to vote on next month. When looking at the bottom line of the budget numbers, they have grown over the last several years, but Board Chairman Mike Pearson explains that is due to accounting standards, not more spending:
“We collect real estate taxes for everybody in the county, but then we write checks out to the school districts, the cities, the villages, the townships, junior college, the library, all of those kinds of things; that has never been on our books, if you will, or accounted for in our budget. That is only $33 million, so when you drop $33 million worth of income and expense in a budget, it more than doubled. If you only look at the bottom line, the county has a lot of money. You have to look at each category. We have very little discretionary money, most of it is dedicated to one project, one office, one category.”
To show the impact of the $33 million now being shown on the books, in 2023 the Warren County Board had $61 million in expenses and for 2024, around $100 million is projected in expenses. Additionally, the Warren County Board is seeking a Supervisor of Assessments.
