While many towns and counties are sinking in a sea of red ink, Sussex County has finished the 2011 fiscal year in the black – and it’s a much darker shade of black than expected.
Sussex Finance Director Susan Webb gave county council the good news at its Dec. 13 meeting: a projected $1 million surplus in the general fund has more than tripled to almost $3.5 million.
Webb said a $1.6 million increase in realty transfer taxes for fiscal 2011 and a sharp decrease in employee-related expenses added up to put the county well in the black.
The county has been able to eliminate 50 jobs over the past three years through attrition, absorbing work in departments and three early-retirement plans.
A single $750,000 realty transfer created by a partnership change in a medical complex was a big boost to the county coffers in fiscal 2011, Webb said. Even so, the tax has fallen from more than $35 million in 2005 and 2006 to less than $15 million the past four years.
County council wasted little time backing staff’s plan to allocate the funds to four areas: • $136,000 in grants as previously authorized by council. Among the grants is $7,500 to provide streetlights and cover community clean-up costs for the West Rehoboth Community Coalition, an increase of $2,500 per town in local law enforcement grants and $3,000 each to county CHEER centers and Meals on Wheels of Lewes and Rehoboth Beach. • Ten percent of the surplus – more than $347,000 – must be dedicated by ordinance to open-space programs. • Nearly $1.1 million to cover a one-time 8 percent property tax reduction amounting to $8.30 for an average county taxpayer. • Nearly $958,000 to be invested in the county’s pension fund and another $958,000 to be invested in the county’s pension benefit trust fund, which funds healthcare costs.
County Administrator David Baker said it was prudent to take advantage of an opportunity to place money in the pension funds. Although the pension trust fund is funded at nearly 90 percent and the pension benefit trust fund is funded at nearly 75 percent, both funds are still short about $9 million of meeting a 100-percent funding level, Baker said. The county has $68 million in its two pension funds.
As posted in the Cape Gazette. Photo by Ron MacArthur.
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