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<br />PRELIMINARY BUDGET PRESENTATION
<br />OMB Director Joe Baird gave a quick overview on the proposed
<br />budget for the coming year. The County has a total budget of
<br />$130,800,000 this year, which is 11.60 less than the prior year.
<br />The taxing funds, transportation and solid waste, account for
<br />$64,000,000. The Board of County Commissioners basically has 3
<br />taxing funds under their control; however, there are 15 ad valorem
<br />taxing funds in Indian River County and the public tends to think
<br />that the Board controls all of them. The general fund is County-
<br />wide; the MSTU is for the unincorporated area services and only
<br />people in the unincorporated area pay that tax; the ESD, which we
<br />have listed as EMS, is for fire and ALS services and it's County-
<br />wide, excluding Indian River Shores. The public is not aware of
<br />the fact that the general fund pays for many services that people
<br />think are paid for by the State; such as judges, the court system,
<br />the public defender, probation, the state attorney, HRS health
<br />department, the medical examiner, and the sheriff. We pay 100% of
<br />corrections out of the general fund under the sheriff's control and
<br />100% of court services, as well as 40% of law enforcement, the tax
<br />collector, the property appraiser, the clerk of the circuit court,
<br />the supervisor of elections, libraries, recreation, Board of County
<br />Commissioners, the county attorney, the county administrator and
<br />the budget office. Cities do not have all these state departments
<br />included in their budgets. The MSTU is for unincorporated area
<br />expenditures, a good example of which is the planning department,
<br />code enforcement, parks, franchises, administration, franchise
<br />administration, the road and bridge department, and also 60% of the
<br />sheriff's law enforcement, which is a transfer out of the general
<br />fund. The largest item in the MSTU is transfers out for the
<br />sheriff and for the road and bridge department.
<br />Director Baird advised that the ESD is fire and ALS for
<br />everything, except Indian River Shores. The transportation fund is
<br />not a taxing fund; however, it gets 63% of its income this year
<br />from the general fund and the MSTU so it has a very big impact on
<br />the taxing funds. The transportation fund includes the road and
<br />bridge department, public works, county engineering and traffic
<br />engineering. The general fund is down $95,000 below last year in
<br />expenditures. County departments only account for 24.6% of the
<br />entire general fund and they are down $240,000 below the prior
<br />year. The MSTU is down $620,000. The biggest part of MSTU
<br />expenditures is transfers in and out and the major item impacting
<br />that expenditure was our transportation fund. A transfer to the
<br />transportation fund was down $400,000. The transportation fund
<br />this year is down $572,000 from the prior year. The transportation
<br />fund has been down for about 3 years in a row and Director Baird
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<br />FEBRUARY 14, 1995 41
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