Budget has 75-cent tax increase: Commissioners say proposal has slim chance of passing
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?We?re under time constraints,? said Budget and Finance Committee chairman George Smartt. ?The budget has to be submitted to the paper for publication by Wednesday.?
Commissioner Michael Martin made the initial motion to publish the budget as is, citing the same reason as Smartt.
?We?ve got to get it in,? said Martin. ?Just send it on like it is.?
At the same time, committee members made it clear they realize the reaction this budget will generate from the rest of the commission, as well as the public.
?It won?t ever pass,? said Herschel Wells.
?No, it won?t,? said Smartt.
?Well, I?ll vote for this now George,? Wells said, ?but I want you to understand, when we get on the floor, I will vote against it.?
After receiving the school budget last Monday, the lateness of which Smartt blamed, at least in part, for the current budget crunch, Budget and Finance held meetings on Tuesday and Wednesday to go over the total budget. It was at this point, after seeing the budget as a whole, it became obvious to committee members it would take a major tax increase to support the budgets of the departments as submitted, all of which included raises for county employees, though at varying amounts.
The decision was made to have director of accounts Linda Hillis pull the raises out of the budgets and estimate the cost of a 3 percent across-the-board raise.
It was this budget, minus the raises, the committee evaluated Friday.
By law a completed budget has to be published at least 10 days prior to the commission?s regular meeting Aug. 21. Committee members agreed there would not be enough time to send the individual budgets back to their respective committees for revision and still be able meet the publication deadline, so the decision was made to publish the budget as is.
The individual budget requests, and the estimated tax increase it would take to fund them, are as follows:
? General fund ? 28 cents
? Ambulance service fund ? 15.5 cents
? School fund ? 17.5 cents
? Sanitation fund ? 4.5 cents
? Highway and Bridge fund ? 7.5 cents
The total of these increases is 73 cents. The committee voted to include the 3 percent across-the-board raise for county employees and asked Hillis to prepare a final budget for approval at a meeting Monday night with that increase included. Committee members felt this would probably take the total property tax increase to around 75 cents.
Committee member, and outgoing commissioner David Hill, reiterated his position on presenting the budget as is to the full commission, without any cuts being made or required by Budget and Finance.
?Personally, I feel we?ve done them a disservice in the past by doing what we?ve done,? Hill said. ?They need to see. They sit in committees and they pass everything down the pike, and they need to see what they?re doing.?
Changes can be made to the budget after it is published, without having to re-publish it, so the budgets can be returned to the respective committees for cuts. But according to Smartt, it is doubtful the budget will be passed before the new commission is installed in September, and even then, a special meeting of the full commission will have to be scheduled, since the next regular meeting won?t be until October, and the state requires counties to present their budgets by Oct. 1.
Smartt said he believes the best thing at this point is to poll all of the commissioners on what sort of tax increase they feel they can live with, under current economic conditions, and build the budget around that.
?At that point, we will ask the committees to meet one or two times prior to Aug. 31 and see what they can do,? Smartt said. ?But it will go into the next commission, and as David has put it, next year?s commission is going get their feet wet in a hurry.?
A glance at property tax increases required to fund county departmental budgets:
? General fund ? 28 cents
? Education ? 17.5 cents
? Ambulance service ? 15.5 cents
? Highway and Bridge fund ? 7.5 cents
? Sanitation fund ? 4.5 cents