County Commission discusses, approves 2027 budget

By Editor | October 2, 2026 |

By Christa Jennings

Senior Staff Writer

During its regular monthly meeting rather than adjourn, the County Commission recessed until September 22.

During its reconvened meeting, the Commission added eight new items to the existing agenda and approved the county budget for the new fiscal year.

During the meeting County Administrator LaCresha Alexander presented the Commission with a one-page budget overview reflecting total budget funds across departments. The overview also reflected year-to-date revenues, presumably for fiscal year 2026; year-to-date expenditures; and the current budget.

For the county general fund, the 2026 review reflects a current budget of $3,901,728.86; with year-to-date revenues of $4,631,361.24 and year-to-date expenditures of $4,437,285.59.

With all departments included, the 2026 budget reflected a current budget of $9,817,855.47, with year-to-date expenditures of $11,600,605.10 exceeding the year-to-date revenues of $10,518,743.44.

In discussing the budget during the September 22 reconvened meeting, Commission Chair Lamar Daugherty stated that it is “scary” to see how close the county is to the red.

The Commission also debated and discussed the appropriations requests for the year, with requests totaling $34,000.

The appropriations requests include $2,500 to the Horseshoe Bend Regional Library; $1,500 to the Coosa County Conservation District; $10,000 to the Coosa County Health Department; $5,000 to the Alabama Forestry Commission; $2,000 to the Extension I-HOPE; $1,500 to the Goodwater Youth Development and Recreational Center; $10,000 to the Coosa County Extension Office; and $1,500 to Community Action.

However, as part of the lengthy budget discussion, the Commission also discussed whether to approve some, all, or none of the appropriations requests.

“There’s several things that have factored in this year that has never been a part of this,” Daugherty said. “This will be the sixth budget that I’ve sat through, the way I got appointed, and this is the first one that I’ve ever had physical numbers of income and expenditures and what went where, and quite honestly, it’s kind of scary to look at and see just how close we are to being in the red.”

Regarding the appropriations requests, he said there were several that the county “could do away with.” He also mentioned that they will get backlash regardless of approving the appropriations or not approving employee raises.

“I don’t really know what the correct answer would be for any of this without getting backlash from somewhere,” Daugherty said. “I could vote not to do any appropriations if it would help us financially, and obviously it would.”

He added, “I know every department in here that’s asked for appropriations, they all get funding from some other entity, so it’s not like we’ll leave them destitute. Quite honestly, as close as we are on numbers, I could sit here and be confident and vote against not giving any appropriations. What are they going to do, fire me?”

County attorney John K. Johnson said that the Commission would “almost need to” determine its budget items to operate each department before it considers appropriations.

“The decision on [appropriations] is – I’m thinking – something that you don’t have to decide today,” Johnson said. “Rather, look at your budgets for each department, and then if you end up having additional monies after you approve your budgets then come back, maybe even next meeting, to appropriations. You know what is asked for from each entity. The question is, do you have it?”

Read more about the county’s approved budget and other items from the Commission meeting in next week’s edition.

Editor’s Note: Because of technical difficulties, unfortunately we were unable to get the full budget story in this week’s edition. See next week’s edition for the rest of the story.