Hillsboro Finance Committee begins review of 2025 budget

Members of the Hillsboro Finance Committee met with Hillsboro City Auditor Dawson Barreras Monday, Nov. 25 to begin reviewing the city’s 2025 budget.

Along with Barreras, present for the meeting were finance committee members Mary Stanforth (chair) and Adam Wilkin, as well as council members Tom Eichinger and Jason Brown.

Barreras said that the 2025 budget is “right around $18 million,” but the total number on the budget is $25,040,383, “and that's the budget that we want to pass.

“The reason for the big number is we only pass an expense budget, and that's what the state requires,” Barreras said. “You don't see any revenue coming in within the budget that we pass. The extra money, the six-point-something million, is grant money that we're receiving for the amphitheater.

“We're going to expend that money. Therefore, when we pass an expense budget, we have to show that on there, so technically, that $6 million will wash out.”

As previously reported, the City of Hillsboro received $5,204,536 to supplement already earmarked grant funding for Crossroads Park (formerly known as the green space on West Main Street). The city has already secured $100,000 in state capital funding, through a partnership with Southern State Community College, for the amphitheater at the park.

The 2024 budget approved last December marked a $3.1 million increase in total appropriations with $19,899,599 budgeted for next year, up from $16,718,302 in 2023. Not counting the grant, Barreras said that less money is budgeted for 2025.

“We're close to $2 million less than last year, believe it or not,” Barreras said. “The reason being for that is we had over a million dollars in paving last year and  various projects throughout the city last year.”

Barreras said he is also projecting “a $1.2 million carryover” into 2025, “which I’m pretty happy with, especially with all the projects we had going on this year.

“Last year, I think it was right around $2 million,” Barreras said. “Anything over $750,000 is pretty good for a municipality our size.”

In December 2023, Barreras had announced a $1.9 million carryover entering 2024, with the 2024 budget including plans to dedicate $1 million toward street paving projects.

Among the topics for the 2025 budget discussed were:

• Personnel/wages. According to Barreras, three part-time labor positions in the parks department will be replaced with “two new full-time” roles, at “base pay” to start.

“They’ll be doing the mowing,” Barreras said. “Where we used to contract out for the parks will no longer be a thing. We’ll be doing all the mowing for all the parks.”

In response to questions from Stanforth about whether there would be “enough work” for the full-time hires, Barreras said that during the offseason at the parks, the new employees can assist with the public works department crews — “streets, water, all that stuff.”

“Shawn [Adkins, public works superintendent] is having trouble hiring people,” Barreras said.

Barreras also noted that a new paralegal will be hired to work under city law director Randalyn Worley, for a total of two paralegals — “one for the city and one for the Municipal Court.” Stanforth questioned why the new hire was “starting at the top” of the pay scale.

“Randalyn told me that [the new hire] is very experienced,” Barreras said. “She says to get that experience in here, with that amount of knowledge, she wants to start her at the top rate of pay.”    

As previously reported, an ordinance to adjust compensation for certain city employees was approved as an emergency, following suspension of the three-reading rule, in September. The ordinance includes two assistant law directors with a pay range of $25,000 to $30,000; a victim rights director at $20-$25/hour; a city building paralegal at $10,000; a municipal court paralegal at $45,000-$55,000; a clerk/court administrator at $31-$40/hour; a deputy clerk I at $25-$30/hour; a deputy clerk II at $19-$24/hour; and a security officer/bailiff at $25-$35/hour.

• Shaffer Park. As previously reported, the City of Hillsboro assumed operations of Shaffer Park in February 2024, following the hiring of Caleb Gregory as parks director, a new position for the city.

“Last year, when we passed the budget, we did not account for taking over Shaffer Park at all,” Barreras said. “For us to squeak through the whole year was pretty lucky.”

Wilkin asked for an update on how running Shaffer Park went in 2024.

“Good,” Barreras said. “I think we made about 60 grand.

“He’s planning to have fall ball next year, so that'll be twice the revenue.”

Barreras added that Gregory is also looking into holding more tournaments at Shaffer Park next year.

• The fire pension line item in the budget, which continues to have money appropriated despite the department being dissolved over a decade ago.

“We've been hit on this every single audit for the last since we dismantled the fire department,” Barreras said. “We actually get a levy, a tax levy, for the fire department, still to this day. We transfer it into the general fund because we don't have a fire department. We're not technically allowed to do that, so that's why we get hit from the audit.”

Barreras said he has “been in talks with the county” but is still awaiting approval from the Highland County Budget Commission on adjusting the city’s inside millage.

“I'm waiting for that committee to transfer these funds into our general fund, and that's why I'm still budgeting as you see it,” Barreras said.

“So until they do, that line item can't go to zero,” Eichinger said.

“Exactly,” Barreras said. “Until they do, we will be budgeting that tax levy from the fire department to the general fund.”

• Grant-funded city projects. Stanforth asked if the city had “any projects coming up that have not been taken care of, but we have the grant money for,” that would be carried over in the budget.

“Pretty much just the amphitheater,” Barreras said. “The North High Street lead project, lines, have been completed. I'll be making those final payments this week.”

• Health insurance. Barreras said the city “got lucky and only got a three-percent raise in health insurance” but that they would not have final numbers until December.

With Hillsboro City Council pushing their next meeting date back to Dec. 23, the committee and Barreras still have close to a month left to review and potentially tweak the budget.

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