Houston County Approves FY-24 Budget; Boosts Spending on County Roads and Workforce

The Houston County Commission approved its FY-24 Budget at their September 11th Commission meeting. The budget projects revenues of $60.6M and expenses of $69.5M, with an ending general fund balance of $13.6M.

The new budget includes $2.2M in increased spending for employee salaries and commits $2M over normal funding levels for county roads. This will allow the county to accelerate resurfacing projects on Crawford Road, Cumbie Road, and D. Hodge Road.

"This was a difficult budget," explained Chairman Shoupe. "Every department had to sacrifice to make this budget work. Some departments had to give up much more than they wanted so that we could fully fund the wage increase. Also, at our current pace, our roads were on a 100-year replacement cycle. That isn't sustainable over the long term. Even with the increased funding, it only drops it to a 30-year replacement cycle. That's a big step in the right direction, but we have much more work ahead."

The budget goes into effect on October 1, 2023. See attached for the FY24 "Quick Facts."