Middlesex County supervisors get overview of budget concerns

by Larry Chowning –

During March budget talks, Middlesex County Administrator Matt Walker gave the board of supervisors an overview of the county’s fund balance, expenditure increases, budget requests and other aspects concerning the proposed fiscal year 2023 (FY23) county budget.

Fund balance

Last year, supervisors were hesitant to raise taxes on taxpayers in the middle of a COVID-19 environment and opted to take funds out of the fund balance to balance the budget…

Fire and Rescue request

One of the largest budget request increases is from fire and rescue services. Fire and rescue are requesting a $718,500 increase…

Reassessment

This is a reassessment tax year and some residential waterfront landowners and others have seen a 20% hike in value of their land. Middlesex County traditionally conducts reassessments every four or five years and has hired independent reassessment firms to do the work…

County debt

Walker informed the board that by the FY28 budget year $1.5 million will drop from the county’s debt service.

County engineer/utilities project manager

The board is considering hiring a county engineer/utilities project manager to perform complex professional and administrative work coordinating Middlesex County engineering operations, wastewater collection system management for the Middlesex County Utilities Department and supervising operations of Middlesex Water Authority (MWA) as its executive director.

Other items…