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LONG COUNTY, Ga. () — Long County is in some serious financial trouble, according to their new County Manager.
Tuesday night, the Long County Board of Commissioners held their first meeting since the new County Manager Chuck Scragg was hired, and he revealed some pretty troubling findings about the state of the county’s finances.
Scragg’s announcement comes after a Long County Commissioner was arrested earlier this year as part of an investigation that the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said revealed several people stole money from Long County through a variety of schemes for personal gain.
“I’m predicting we might have a problem making payroll at the end of this month,” Scragg said. “Our fees and taxes and income in this case are probably only about $525,000…Our base bills come to approximately $600,000-$700,000.”
Scragg said the county also has several outstanding debts for projects like the Long County Jail.
The jail is not operational at the moment, meaning the county can’t leverage it as an asset.
“On April 15 we are supposed to pay four notes that are bonds to the tune of $815,000 for the bond indebtedness for the jail. That would come out of the general fund. That money is not there,” he said.
Scragg’s findings come in the wake of a large-scale investigation into theft of government money from Long County.
The GBI investigation led to the arrest of County Commissioner Robert Parker and local businessman Tony Fowler.
“In looking at the six to seven months we really don’t have any money missing…You can see where the money came in and out. There is no missing money. There is no 22 million dollars,” he said.
The new county manager said the county is looking at ways to get the jail open so they can start making money from it, but that would require several hundred thousand dollars.
In the meantime, he recommended putting a freeze on hiring any new county employees and cutting some existing positions so that they can make payroll and continue to provide essential services.