“How has the county budget grown over the years? Where does the county spend tax money? The State of North Carolina requires all counties to audit budgets with classification areas and submit them to the State Department of Revenue. The presentation here looks at how the county stacks up in % of budget spent in these classification areas as well as on a per capita amount in each classification area. County staff also went back nine years in the Transylvania County Audits to show where funds were spent and how fast revenues were growing. The only revenue that commissioners can directly control is property taxes. Revenue that comes to the county from the state such as transportation funding can only be spent on transportation. Other state funds typically have similar strings on how they can be spent and for which services. Roughly 85% of the county budget is for mandated services, but within that counties can choose to provide a higher level of service than required. County staff also took readily available data on the long term service trends and compared those to the spending by category as shown in the presentation.”
Budget Analysis Documentation: