The Governor has signed the budget and while the legislature really loves them some cities and towns, there is some money there for counties, though not at much as in prior budgets.

Section 335 of the budget, House Enrolled Act 46, allocates $87,456,560 for distribution to local governments.  One-third of 89% of the total, or $25,945,187 will be distributed directly to counties in August 2010 and August 2011.

All counties will receive an equal share of 15% of the $25.9 million.  The other 85% will be distributed to counties based on the proportion of the county’s population to the state population.

Another 5.5% of the $87.4 million dollar allocation will be sent to “revenue challenged” counties.  The formula to determine if a county is revenue challenged is based on twelve mills of the total valuation compared to a county funding need based on population.