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Lowndes County, Georgia

County seat: Valdosta. The county’s budget and audited finances, drawn line-by-line from Lowndes County’s own published budget book and Annual Comprehensive Financial Report.

Established: December 23, 1825 Government: Commission / Manager Land area: 511 sq mi Population: 122,867 (2025)
Total budget — All Funds
$193,127,057
Sum of the individual fund budgets in the FY2027 budget book.
FY2027 · Proposed
General Fund budget
$74,455,350
The county’s primary operating fund.
FY2027 · Proposed
General Fund fund balance
$30,014,310
Unassigned $11,992,729 · Assigned for property tax rollback $18,021,581.
FY2025 · Audited
Total governmental fund balances
$79,906,301
General Fund, SPLOST VIII, and other governmental funds combined.
FY2025 · Audited
Long-term debt — debt instruments only
$47,307,983
Governmental leases $44,717,040 + business-type GEFA notes $2,590,943. The county has no general obligation debt outstanding.
FY2025 · Audited
Total long-term obligations incl. pension & OPEB
$169,619,081
Debt instruments plus pension, OPEB, claims, landfill, and compensated-absence obligations — not debt alone.
FY2025 · Audited
Total net position
$213,870,411
Government-wide net position at June 30, 2025.
FY2025 · Audited
Population
122,867
U.S. Census Bureau figure for 2025, as cited in the FY2027 Operating Budget’s Community Profile.
2025 · U.S. Census Bureau

FY2027 budget by fund

Every fund in the FY2027 budget book. The rows sum exactly to the $193,127,057 All Funds total. Status follows the budget book itself, whose transmittal letter presents it as “the fiscal year 2027 proposed budget.”

General Fund$74,455,350
Commissary$1,645,550
Law Library$100,000
Accommodation Tax$900,000
Intergovernmental Grants$1,452,643
Jail Operations$305,159
Drug Abuse Treatment$60,928
Emergency Communications$4,480,290
Victim/Witness$190,500
Special Services$2,375,158
Fire Services$8,147,233
Tree Bank$75,000
SPLOST VIII$25,000,000
SPLOST IX$34,000,000
TSPLOST$5,300,000
Public Roads – LMIG$2,500,000
Water/Sewer$11,306,403
Landfill$569,997
Tax Lighting Districts$527,400
Inspections$870,583
Quiet Pines Golf Course$814,947
Equipment Maintenance$7,363,751
Health Insurance$8,461,300
Workers Compensation$555,000
Technology Fleet$1,669,865
Total — All Funds$193,127,057

Source: Operating Budget — Fiscal Year 2027, Lowndes County, GA (FY2027, year beginning July 1, 2026) — read the budget book (PDF). Status: Proposed, per the book’s own transmittal letter.

FY2027 expenditures by function

Where the money goes by service area, across all funds. Public Works — roads, water, sewer, and the SPLOST capital programs — is by far the largest function.

General Government$24,386,941
Judicial$9,290,881
Public Safety$45,158,944
Public Works$92,110,708
Health & Welfare$863,942
Culture & Recreation$7,424,420
Housing & Development$7,214,673
Total expenditures$186,450,509

Reconciliation: $186,450,509 in expenditures + $5,408,548 in operating transfers in + $1,268,000 in non-operating expenses = the $193,127,057 All Funds budget total. The All Funds total is the sum of the individual fund budgets shown above.

Source: Operating Budget — Fiscal Year 2027, Lowndes County, GA (FY2027) — read the budget book (PDF). Status: Proposed.

Governmental fund balances — FY2025, audited

Fund balances at June 30, 2025, from the audited financial statements. SPLOST VIII — the voter-approved sales-tax capital fund — holds the largest balance.

General Fund$30,014,310
Capital Project — American Rescue Plan Fund$0
SPLOST VIII$39,817,651
Other Governmental Funds$10,074,340
Total governmental fund balances$79,906,301

Within the General Fund’s $30,014,310: $11,992,729 unassigned and $18,021,581 assigned for property tax rollback.

Source: Annual Comprehensive Financial Report, Lowndes County, GA, July 1, 2024–June 30, 2025 (FY2025, audited, unmodified opinion) — read the ACFR (PDF).

Long-term obligations — FY2025, audited

Everything the county owes over the long term. Only the first two lines are debt instruments; the rest are pension, retiree-health (OPEB), and other actuarial or contractual obligations.

$47,307,983 — debt instruments only

Leases $44,717,040 + GEFA loans $2,590,943. The county has no general obligation debt outstanding. The $169,619,081 total below is all long-term obligations, not debt alone.

Leases$44,717,040
GEFA Loans$2,590,943
Estimated Claims Payable$1,455,113
Landfill Closure / Postclosure$1,050,336
Net Pension Liability$26,453,832
Net OPEB Liability$91,295,596
Compensated Absences$2,056,221
Total long-term obligations$169,619,081

Source: Annual Comprehensive Financial Report, Lowndes County, GA, July 1, 2024–June 30, 2025 (FY2025, audited, unmodified opinion) — read the ACFR (PDF).

Notes & disclosures

Three things a careful reader should know about the figures on this page.

Why FY2027 is labeled “Proposed”

The FY2027 budget book itself calls its total the “fiscal year 2027 proposed budget” in its transmittal letter, so every FY2027 figure on this page carries the Proposed label exactly as the county published it. For context: the Board of Commissioners held a June 30, 2026 meeting to adopt the proposed FY2027 budget, and local news reported approval at $193M — but the status shown here follows the budget document itself and is not upgraded.

Authority bonds are not county debt

County-backed bonds issued by other authorities are contingent obligations of those authorities, not county debt, and are excluded from every debt total on this page: Valdosta-Lowndes County Development Authority bonds of $17,545,000, and Hospital Authority bonds of $148,280,000, $96,860,000, and $131,290,000.

Where the ACFR disagrees with itself

The ACFR’s MD&A narrative contains figures that disagree with its own audited statements: a fund-balance increase stated as $8,301,971 where the audited net change is $8,905,664, and a General Fund liquidity percentage of 39.51% where the audited amounts give 31.6%. This page follows the audited financial statements wherever the two differ.

Sources

Every figure on this page comes from one of these two county documents.

Operating Budget — Fiscal Year 2027
Lowndes County, GA · FY2027, year beginning July 1, 2026 · Budget figures labeled Proposed, per the book’s transmittal letter.
https://lowndescounty.com/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/950
Annual Comprehensive Financial Report
Lowndes County, GA · July 1, 2024 – June 30, 2025 · FY2025, audited, unmodified opinion.
https://lowndescounty.com/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/945