OKTIBBEHA COUNTY — Oktibbeha County supervisors on Thursday approved a $61.4 million budget for Fiscal Year 2026 that funds 3% raises for county employees, despite a nearly $10 million drop in projected revenue.
County Administrator Wayne Carpenter attributed the decrease in revenue to the winding down of American Rescue Plan Act-funded projects.
“This is primarily due to the conclusion of ARPA. We had a number of grants, number of things that were executed during the current year, so the cash balance was on hand, which counts as revenue technically,” he told supervisors Thursday during the public budget hearing. “That’s what’s causing the total revenue decrease.”
With ARPA-funded projects wrapping up, the county no longer has the same level of revenue. But it also doesn’t have to budget the same ARPA expenditures in FY 2026, Carpenter said.
Of the $61.4 million in projected revenue, Carpenter said $27.7 million will be collected from ad valorem taxes. That leaves $33.1 million in non-property tax revenue that consists of about $22.4 million in unspent cash carried over from FY 25 – and about $11.2 million coming from various sources, like road and bridge privilege taxes, state funds, interest income and others.
Part of the beginning cash, Carpenter said, will be used to cover a gap in the county’s general fund, which is budgeted to spend about $20.9 million while only taking in $19.9 million.
“That’s going to require a beginning cash balance of $1,843,000 to cause that budget to balance,” Carpenter said.
To fund the budget, the county will levy 124.93 mills, a slight increase of .32 mills over the current fiscal year. Carpenter said the increase comes solely from the Starkville-Oktibbeha Consolidated School District’s debt service request. The county’s own operational millage remained flat at 124.6 mills.
A mill is used to measure property taxes. A 1-mill increase, for example, would add $10 to a homeowner’s tax bill per every $100,000 of property value.
With an additional .32 mills added to the levy this year for the school district’s debt service, county property owners can expect to pay $3.20 more than last year for every $100,000 in value.
The budget includes a 3% cost of living raise across the board that Carpenter said will apply to employees who meet certain criteria, including having been with the county at least a year.
There are four new positions budgeted for FY 26, including an intake specialist, case manager and social worker, all for the youth court, as well as two animal control deputies, with the salaries of all four budgeted at about $244,000.
Left on the cutting room floor were large requests from the Volunteer Fire Department and Oktibbeha County Sheriff’s Office for new vehicles.
“We decided to delay on that decision, and to come back and try and figure out the financing requirements and options on those firetrucks,” he said. “So if this board decides at a later date … to do that, then it will require a budget amendment.”
McRae is a general assignment and education reporter for The Dispatch.
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