The $2.8 million or 4.6% increase in spending is partially due to cost of living increases for staff, county administrator Brandon Huddleson said. However, the “lion’s share” of the increase is due to inflation.
“The cost of goods & services, software maintenance, and vehicles have continued to climb,” he said. “On a positive note, the Sheriff’s Office has had success recruiting corrections officers over the past year, so we budgeted higher in that line to account for near-full staffing.”
Last year, the county cut about $1 million in payroll for the Greene County Sheriff’s Office, due to a continuous shortage of corrections officers in 2023. However, the Sheriff’s Office has since returned to near-full staffing.
The county’s projected revenue in 2025 is $76.9 million, compared to about $73 million in 2024. The county often uses those surpluses (roughly $12 million each for 2024 and 2025) for capital improvement projects, most recently ongoing construction of the Greene County Jail. Greene County contributed roughly $20 million of its cash reserves towards that project.
Most of the county’s capital projects for 2025 are in maintaining its current facilities, and so won’t be much in the public eye, Huddleson said. The county’s master facilities plan, approved earlier this year, won’t be implemented for several years.
However, the county does plan to bring the jail project to completion by the end of 2025.
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