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| County looking to balance FY 12-13 budget |
By: Mary Jean Hall, Special to The Press
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Posted: Thursday, July 12, 2012 11:39 am
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Weakley County property owners could see as much as a 20-cent property tax increase this year.
According to county commissioners, the Finance, Ways, and Means Committee is considering a property tax increase in order to not have to cut county employees.
“Nobody wants to see anyone lose their jobs,” said commissioner Eric Owen. “In the corporate world, what do they do? They cut personnel. The government doesn’t work like that.
“If we’re going to raise taxes, everyone needs to know why we are raising taxes.”
According to commissioner Roger Stewart, nearly 70 percent of the entire general fund budget is composed of salaries and similar expenses.
Based on numbers presented at the meetings from Monday and Thursday, the general fund budget has a deficit of $260,028. The committee is trying to find a way to get a balance of about $522,000. The difference is about $782,000.
“We’re not out of the woods yet,” said Stewart in a meeting held Thursday. “We may have to raise property taxes.”
The current county property tax rate is $2.06 per $100 of assessed land. Each city also has its own additional property tax rate.
According to the FWM Committee, there is about $43,000 in revenue from each penny in property taxes. With the $782,000 difference, county property owners could see an 18-cent property tax increase. The highway fund would add another 2-cent increase.
“The road board’s going to have to raise taxes,” said Stewart. “The only fund that has come in here balanced is the school fund. They’ve laid off employees, they’ve laid off teachers, and they’ve cut back on expenses.”
For the highway fund budget, the committee added a 2-cent property tax increase for a total of an $86,000 increase of revenue. Another $86,000 was added by taking 2-cents per person from the debt service fund.
According to Stewart, the total debt service fund is currently $4,589,441. Commissioner Jimmy Westbrook informed the committee the debt service fund had received most of the money from a one-half cent sales tax that lasted from 1998 until 2010.
The highway fund only had a fund balance of $12,096 at the beginning of Monday’s FWM Committee meeting. The commissioners increased revenue to the fund by $172,000 for a total of $184,096 for the projected fund balance.
“Twelve thousand is too close,” said Stewart on the beginning fund balance. “That won’t survive.”
There were a few changes in the budget noted during the meeting. The salary of the County Official position of the highway department has a 1.6 percent increase, which is mandated by the state. That increased the highway fund budget by $1,125.
There was a significant hike in the cost of materials. The proposed increase in costs for liquid asphalt costs is $34,968, while crushed stone is $15,359. There is also a $6,000 proposed increase for maintenance and repair.
According to Weakley County Road Supervisor Kermit Hopper, that money will be used to hook up a new generator at the shop. Emergency Management had obtained a grant to purchase the new generator, but the county has to cover the expenses to hook it up.
According to Hopper, in Weakley County, around three to three and a half miles of hot asphalt is laid per year, while it used to be around 20 miles per year. It costs around $25,000 per mile to pave with hot asphalt.
“Most of the roads are blacktopped or chipped,” said Stewart. “Now we are worrying about maintenance.”
Since the committee didn’t include money to match funding from the state for a wooden bridge replacement project, the county’s road board met after the FWM Committee to figure out how to fit the $72,500 project into the budget. According to Hopper, the bridge sees a “lot of heavy traffic.”
The road board opted to eliminate a position for a total of $28,000; and cut $10,000 from the diesel fund, $17,000 from the liquid asphalt fund, $7,500 from the crushed stone line item, and $10,000 from the pipe fund.
The committee will meet again today, and potentially Wednesday, at 4:30 p.m. at the Weakly County Department of Finance in Dresden to finalize the county’s Fiscal Year 2012-13 budget.
WCP 7.10.12
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