County officials can’t settle on new budget
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Officials had previously moved the regular county commission June meeting date from June 16 to June 30 in an effort to give the county’s Budget and Finance Committee a chance to finish the budget and publish it in the Standard at least 10 days prior to the meeting as required by law.
“We had intended, the Budget and Finance Committee that is, on presenting the budget this evening,” said committee chairman George Smartt, “so the commission could consider it and vote on it. However, we were informed, last week I believe it was, by the county audit when they came down to print the budget, that the private act under which we work, or some state law, prohibits Warren County from voting on next year’s budget during this budget year.”
The reason being that if next year’s budget was passed in this fiscal year, the county would essentially have two budgets running at the same time, which is what the law was designed to prevent.
In any case, Budget and Finance Committee members, who had recently passed a controversial 2003-2004 budget that included an 11-cent property tax hike, were understandably anxious to determine where the majority of commissioners stood on this budget.
As a result, Smartt asked the commission for a straw vote to determine what kind of support the budget currently had. Smartt then reiterated the committee’s stance that the county’s fund balance was decreasing alarmingly year by year, pointing out how risky that situation was for the future fiscal health of Warren County.
Commissioner Gary Prater presented an opposing argument that county residents were being taxed enough already and more budget cuts could be made to avoid a tax increase.
“We keep putting this burden on taxpayers,” Prater said. “And it just seems like every year we’re raising taxes and raising taxes. I think it’s time that we put this burden on the department heads, and we let the people have a break.”
Smartt countered by pointing out that operating a government was much like operating a business where rising expenses are a fact of life.
“The cost of doing business keeps going up. Everybody knows that,” Smartt said, pointing out it is unrealistic to deal with rising costs without a commiserate increase in taxes to offset them.
After some more spirited discussion from commissioners, Smartt called for the non-binding vote on the proposed budget, which failed with a 17-7 vote.
In an interesting side note, Smartt also asked for a straw vote on the City of McMinnville’s proposal of a 3/4-cent sales tax hike. That proposal passed with a 19-4 vote with one commissioner passing.
After the meeting Smartt said Budget and Finance will go back to work on the budget.
“The will of the commission is they think they can find the cuts,” Smartt said. “Offhand I would say they’re going to be looking for about a half-million dollars in cuts to make up the 11 cents that we proposed.”