A balanced budget with no increases in taxes or fees will be presented for fiscal year 2009 to 2010 at the 6:30 p.m. Monday meeting of the Richmond County Board of Commissioners.

“The proposed General Fund Budget includes realistic revenue and expenditure projections, even though I have used just over $2 million from the Fund Balance Account to balance this budget,” said County Manager Jim Haynes.

The proposed $44,995,524 budget is about $3 million less than last year’s.

“With care, I expect though that our Fund Balance Account, in addition to meeting the minimum requirements of the N.C. Local Government Commission, will continue strong,” he said.

That minimum would be almost $3.6 million, or eight percent of the budget amount.

Commissioners will be asked to set a date for a public hearing on the budget.

Copies of the budget will be on review for the public at the county manager’s office in the County Administration Building at 125 S. Hancock St. in Rockingham.

“This has been the most difficult budget year I have seen in my 30 years of working with local government budgets,” Haynes said. “The fact that we are unable to predict the future of the national, state or county economies for the next year makes this budget more of a best guess than most.”

It is a budget Haynes will be leaving to a new county manager to work with for the coming year because he is retiring at the end of July. Haynes prepared his first budget for the county after being hired in 1996.

He said the positive effects of Medicaid reform removing that expense from the county budget has been muted by a downturn in sales taxes.

“We are not seeing the total results that will be evident in years to come as eventually sales tax growth will more than make up for the lost sales tax revenue in some of the sales tax categories,” he said. The lost taxes resulted in a swap of some sales tax categories in exchange for removal of Medicaid.

The proposed budget requires an 81-cent per $100 tax rate, the same as the present rate.

Within that rate, Haynes said there is five cents to pay for the referendum approved by taxpayers for new school construction and renovations. There is also seven cents required to pay the debt on the new Richmond County Judicial Center.

The proposed budget also includes the added expense of maintaining and staffing the new judicial center.

The budget was kept low partly because of cutbacks on personnel costs.

“I have used a furlough of county employees to reduce direct personnel costs,” Haynes said. “I have had to reluctantly include the furlough that will amount to a two percent reduction in pay for all county employees.”

Another cost-cutting move is to reduce by two percent the county’s 401k contribution for all employees which saves $500,000.

“We should all keep in mind,” he said, “that there are activities in Raleigh every day the Legislature is in session that can affect this budget.”

The opening of the new judicial center will require nine new deputies and six new jail security officers. “It is unfortunate the county commissioners were forced to construct this building at this time,” Haynes said.

Fees for water, solid waste and fire departments remain the same as this year.

The county has the following bonds outstanding from the general fund:

n $1.9 million for economic development to be paid off in 2023.

n $11 million for schools to be paid off in 2027.

n $18.9 million for judicial center and Richmond Community College renovations to be paid off in 2028.

There is also a $5 million debt in the water and sewer fund with the last bonds scheduled to be paid off in 2032.

n Contact reporter Tom MacCallum at 997-3111, ext. 15; e-mail tmaccallum@yourdailyjournal.com.