BUNNELL — With public pressure for less spending and the threat of future constraints, the Board of County Commissioners continues to tighten its belt as budget season nears its end.
Before the board next month votes on the final terms of the 2026-27 fiscal year budget, officials still want more cuts made to the $333 million tentative budget.
And those will have to come from the clerk and comptroller’s budget, which is approximately $77,000 over what the board would like to see.
Since the start of budget season, commissioners have asked departments across the board to reduce spending as much as possible, particularly the county’s constitutional officers, which include the clerk of the circuit court and comptroller; the sheriff’s office; the property appraiser; the supervisor of elections; and the tax collector.
The commissioners Aug. 17 continued discussing those departments’ budgets, which have already experienced a round of cuts after adjusting cost-of-living and merit-increase rates.
Flagler BOCC want further cuts to constitutional officers’ budgets
Despite an overall 0.6% decrease from 2025 in the total proposed budget, all five constitutional officers have requested more money than last year.
Their initial combined budget proposals in July amounted to approximately $69.2 million — nearly $5 million more than the 2025-26 budget.
After the commissioners requested the officers revise their budgets, especially after dropping the requested 2% merit pay increase and reducing the cost-of-living adjustment rate from 3 to 2.3%, they returned with nearly $330,000 in cuts.
But the board still isn’t satisfied, especially with the clerk’s budget, which went from $4.4 million in 2025-26, to a requested $4.9 million this coming year. Even after the commissioners’ initial spending cut request, the current total of around $4.76 million is still not low enough.
Vice Chair Kim Carney asked, and a majority of the board agreed, to request that the clerk’s office reduce its budget further to around $4.69 million, which would represent just a 5% increase from last year, rather than the nearly 11% increase initially proposed.
The News-Journal has reached out to the Clerk of Court and Comptroller Tom Bexley for comment.
Flagler County chair on 2026 budget constraints: ‘We’re cruising for a bruising’
County Chair Leann Pennington said the county is passing on other spending opportunities in the interest of saving money for next year.
“We have not brought our employees up to $20 an hour; we’re skipping capital improvement projects that are past time to be done in lieu of doing them in other areas,” Pennington said. “I just think this year we ought to hold tight.”
She said that while the ask for the clerk’s budget “is not a lot,” … “it’s probably going to shore up one of those problems that we have got coming up, like (grant) matching and all the other little things behind the scenes.”
“I’m telling you, we are cruising for a bruising … this year,” Pennington said.
The board will consider the finalized terms of the budget twice in September, voting both times on the measure. The first vote is scheduled for Sept. 3, while the final budget adoption date is set for Sept. 14.
— Brenno Carillo is a local government reporter covering Flagler County, including Palm Coast and Flagler Beach, for The Daytona Beach News-Journal.
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Flagler BOCC targets county clerk budget as final vote approaches
Reporting by Brenno Carillo, Daytona Beach News-Journal / The Daytona Beach News-Journal
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By Brenno Carillo, Daytona Beach News-Journal | USA TODAY Network
