County commission approves $67.4 million budget
Published 5:45 am Wednesday, September 29, 2021
- American flags are seen at the Cullman County Courthouse.
Cullman County’s annual budget will grow over the one the county commission passed last year, while incorporating a number of priority spending items on the back of stronger-than-expected revenues for the fiscal year that’s now ending.
At its most recent regular meeting, the county commission approved an FY 2021/2022 budget that rings in at $67.4 million overall, with the largest share — $22.4 million — resting in the county’s General Fund.
As in previous years, water, sanitation, and especially county road budgets all take up the most sizable chunks of the remaining funds, with this year’s road budget taking up $11.4 million. The water department’s FY 2022 budget was approved at $13. 5 million, while the sanitation department will operate under a budget just shy of $7 million. County parks will receive $2.3 million for the coming year.
Roads have been a particular point of public emphasis for commission chairman Jeff Clemons and associate commissioners Kerry Watson and Garry Marchman.
“This year the budget process began with the commission setting some priorities…[that] include road and infrastructure restoration, a revitalization of the employee job descriptions and pay scale, and a maintenance plan for the existing assets of the Cullman County Commission,” the commission said in its prepared budget remarks.
“The road budget will continue to draw down the $2 million in Restore Cullman County Roads funds allocated by the commission in 2021, and we have projected an increase in the Rebuild Alabama funds as well.”
This year’s overall $67.4 million budget outpaces last year’s (which the commission adopted at $65.6 million) — and indeed all others in years prior. Last year’s General Fund, however, was slightly larger, at $23.5 million compared with this year’s $22.4 million.
“This is the largest budget the Cullman County Commission’s ever had,” county administrator John Bullard told commissioners. “It really tries to address the priorities that the commission has set for the coming year.”