The Newton Co. government, for fiscal year 2018, saw its best year, in terms of revenue, ever -- after realizing a 15% rate of appreciation in increased revenue, $87.6 million vs the previous year's $76.3 million.
For the majority of us who saw our ad valorem assessed values skyrocket, this is really no surprise, but it is pretty telling, no? Most of us got the memo - the business of government is a good business to be in right now, and while the private sector is growing, due mainly to the changes in the regulatory & tax structures at the federal & state levels, regular wages & capital investment still remains fairly stagnant. But that's simply not the case for most of the 159 counties & approx 600 municipalities of the our fine state, is it? But...that's another discussion for another time.
The most concerning bit of information, though, at least for this writer, was the rate at which Newton County's government grew this past year:
The expenditures of Newton government increased $9 million in FY 2018.
And folks, the increase of judicial & legal costs of this past fiscal year was actually almost flat. The problem was the usual culprit - the "general government" of Newton Co, which overran it budget by approx $8.8 million deficit, per page 26 of Newton Co.'s financial report.
So, fearless readers, not unlike the City of Covington, the TL;DR version of things is this:
"Not Looking Good..."
As always, thanks for reading.
- MB McCart
