Assessor’s office looking at projected deficit, asks county for help
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PARKERSBURG - The Wood County Assessor’s Office will be looking at options to make up for a shortfall in its budget that Assessor John Kelly said had been growing since before he came into office.
Kelly, CPA Brett Burns and Deputy Assessor Connie McAtee appeared before the County Commission on Monday to discuss the situation involving the office's valuation fund which is what the Real Estate Division in the office operates under.
Some estimates provided by the officials in the Assessor's Office have the fund short around $357,000 by the end of this fiscal year. Kelly said on Tuesday he wasn't sure of the exact number at this time. Burns said money from a reserve fund has been depleted.
When he started his budget process this year the paperwork he had showed the office had around $400,000 in cash carryover from the previous year. However, Kelly has discovered that the office was spending more money than it had coming in through tax revenue.
The office overspent its budget in 2022-23, 23-24 and 24-25, Kelly said, adding he did not have as much money as he thought.
Burns said Monday that the budget in the office was last balanced around 2020-21, and the office has added two employees since then. Kelly took office in January 2025.
Kelly said new houses are not being built in the area and traditionally a lot of the new tax money came in from property taxes when new homes were being built.
"It caught up with us, and we have a negative balance," he said. "I need to make some changes in here to bring the budget back into balance.
"We are going to do that. I am going to fix it."
Kelly said they are looking at addressing it through a combination of revenue increases and cutting expenditures.
He has provided a possible recommendation in increasing property assessments countywide by 5%.
Kelly said Monday state code requires property appraisals to be between 90 and 110% of the fair market value of properties throughout the county.
"We have maintained the lowest level that we can possibly maintain, and in some cases may have fallen a little below 90%," he said. "(Raising it by 5%) still leaves us on the low side of the spectrum."
That adjustment would increase the revenue in the assessor's office by $60,000 to $100,000 per year. Because of the tax money being split between the county and Wood County Schools, it is estimated the county would receive around an additional $1 million and the school board would receive around an additional $2 million. If approved, it could be implemented by next year, officials said.
Kelly said they are moving some job responsibilities around among their personnel and will be looking at ways to cut back on expenses. Some jobs are being put back in a budget line item from which they were previously moved. Kelly said Monday that his office was spending under what he presented in his budget.
But that alone will not make up what they will be short in the Assessor's office. Burns felt the commission would have to put some money forward to help make things work out.
He said the biggest expenses that can be controlled are wages and health insurance costs, the latter having almost doubled for the office, he said.
At one point during Monday's meeting, the commission, Kelly and other county officials went into executive session to discuss "personnel matters."
"I have to cover as many bases and provide as many options to find a solution," Kelly said "(The 5% option) was one of the options that was on the table, and that is what I presented. It is not something anyone likes, and it is not something anyone wants to do."
Commission President Blair Couch asked if the county would have to change its levy rate and was told they would not.
Officials said they foresaw the shortfall coming around a year-and-a-half ago. Couch asked why they were being told about this now. Burns said there was a lack of fully understanding the situation with how the budget process had been done historically.
Commissioner Jimmy Colombo said that if the county was to help with this they would expect to be paid back.
"We can't bleed all of our departments for this one department," he said.
Burns said the terms of that would be negotiated and kept track of until it was paid back.
Commissioners wanted numbers about what the 5% option would be expected to bring in as well as other options being considered.
"We look forward to the plan so we will know what we will be able to do," Couch said.
They will also look at insurance costs as more people are on the plan with more employees putting their immediate families on their coverage.
Kelly said he is not sure yet if they will go to the 5% route as they were "looking at some other options" to reduce the costs.
"It is my intent to bring this thing back into compliance," Kelly said Tuesday. "We are probably going to have some assistance from the county commission for a period of time to help us. … We are not going to rule anything out at this time."
Contact Brett Dunlap at bdunlap@newsandsentinel.com