Commissioners Discuss Budget

“A mill rate increase is not a tax increase,” Chief Appraiser Lynn Bentley told the commissioners at a work session Monday, while explaining the changes to the digest and the “rollback rate.”

Mrs. Bentley said Jasper County’s tax digest last year was about $391 million. This year’s digest is only $347 million. She said the greatest decline in values was in subdivisions, and said rural property did not go down as much in value, so those properties will have a heavier tax burden.

Mrs. Bentley explained that the rollback rate is the change in millage rate that produces the same revenue. And, she said, 67 percent of Jasper County’s revenues are property tax.

Mrs. Bentley said that the perception is taxes go down when values are down, but property taxes are a big portion of the tax base. The recession didn’t change the services required, she said.

Commissioner Mary Patrick said that other counties are decreasing services. She went on to say if her property value has been greatly reduced, should she have to pay the same tax. She said in real life people aren’t working; people can’t pay taxes.
Commissioner Jack Bernard said, “I don’t think we can make dramatic cuts in services.”

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County Manager Greg Wood said the $8.6 million proposed budget includes 12 furlough days for all employees. He also said the primary goal of Monday’s work session is for the staff to see what direction the commissioners want to go.

As staff members pointed out the county’s cost of services hasn’t been reduced, Commissioner Bernard said his constituents aren’t looking at what the county needs.
Commissioner Patrick asked what departments are wanting increases and why.

Mr. Wood mentioned fuel and insurance as two causes for increases that the departments don’t have control over.

Commissioner Patrick said the county does have control over insurance costs, she also said that we have to find cuts to go back down to at least where we were.

Commissioner Alan Cox said that obviously the county was going to have to eliminate services or raise taxes. He said we can’t do without police, fire, EMS, but we can do without some things such as recreation, the senior center.
Chief Financial Officer Lorri Smith noted the change in millage rate to receive the same revenues as last year. Last year’s rate was 14.48 in the incorporated areas, and it would increase to 15.833. For the unincorporated areas, the change would be from 13.98 to 17.361.

Commissioner Cox asked why did the values go down more in the county than in the incorporated areas. Mrs. Bentley said that traditionally the cities have been slightly undervalued. She also said values in the cities don’t tend to vary as widely as those in the county.

Commissioner Jack Bernard suggested that the county look at other sources of revenues. He suggested instituting a “special tax district” to fund fire and Emergency Medical Services (EMS). He said if each parcel was charged $100 for fire and EMS that would make up for the shortfall without having to raise millage. He said that would be more equitable.

Commissioners agreed to meet next Monday, May 23, at 5 p.m. to discuss the budget further, and if needed, again on Tuesday, May 24, at 5 p.m.

Regular Meeting
After the work session, commissioners went into their regular meeting where they discussed a number of topics.
Commissioners voted 3-2 to move forward with paving projects that will exhaust the county’s budget for capital outlay for roads for this year and next year. The county will spend $364,120 of local money on patching and triple treatment surfacing, and the state will pitch in $271,000 to resurface the remainder of Jackson Lake Road, Harvey Lane Road and County Line Road. In addition, the county will put the triple surface on Davidson Road.

The prices are based on a quote from Key Paving of $108 per ton, and the quote expires the end of this month.
Commissioner Patrick questioned if it was correct the county was going to do the equivalent of 10 miles of patching on the 2.5 miles of Jackson lake Road left to pave. Public Works Director Will Brown said yes, that was what it amounted to after he went and measured all the patching required.

She also questioned using the quote from Key Paving and not putting the project out to bid.
Commissioner Cox said we have to move forward with doing some things in this county, and referred to the work required for the county’s infrastructure.

Commissioner Carl Pennamon said we all agreed last year to put our resources on Jackson Lake Road. He then questioned when the county was going to get a road plan, a real road plan that would outline priorities and demonstrate future projects.

Mr. Wood said that the T-SPLOST, which is a special regional sales tax proposal for roads in the district, will inject a huge amount of money into road projects.

Mr. Brown said that the way costs are now, and funding available that it is going to be virtually impossible to do a whole road in one pass. He said we will have to look at all funding sources. As for bids, he said, “we can go to bid, but we won’t beat $108” [per ton]”

Commission Chairman Charles Hill, and Commissioners Bernard and Cox voted in favor of moving forward with the work, while commissioners Patrick and Pennamion voted against.

On the subject of the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST), with little discussion, commissioners agreed unanimously that they could live with a split of three percent of proceeds for Shady Dale, 21 percent for Monticello, and 76 percent for the county, if the cities would agree to accept these percentages for the Local Option Sales Tax (LOST) that is scheduled for reconsideration in two years.

Commissioners agreed to accept the low bid for the Emergency Notification system that will provide citizens with telephone notification of impending disasters. The county received a grant of $25,000, and must match it 25 percent, one-half of which can be an in-kind match, and one-half to which would be a cash match.
The low bidder was Global Connect with a quote of $3,037.50, which for a three year contract equates to $11,137.50. Commissioners agreed to a contract for the length of time that would be closest to using the full $25,000 in grant money.

Fire chief Jarrett Slocumb came before the commissioners to discuss a community wildfire protection plan. Mr. Slocumb, along with personnel from the Georgia Forestry Commission (GFC), surveyed the county and the plan has recommendations for actions needed to be taken to lessen the risk of wildfire, particularly as it applies to structures being involved.

Mr. Slocumb said the GFC spokesman could not be there because he had been called to fight the fire in the Okefenokee. He said that the county had received $39,178 to be used for education about wildfire prevention, and it must all be allocated by September, 2012. Commissioner Cox asked if the plan requires people of the county to do anything, and Mr. Slocumb answered, no, they are just recommendations.

Commissioner Patrick asked if the plan had to be approved for the county to spend that money. Mr. Slocumb said he didn’t think so. She said she is against more government, and in a few years it will tell us what we have to do. She said the county is always getting these no strings attached plans, then down the road, requirements are made.

Mr. Wood said he had e-mailed copies of the plan to the commissioners last week. However, Mr. Cox said he did not remember getting it, and that he could not vote for something he had not seen. After much discussion, Commissioners Bernard and Hill voted to approve the plan, and Commissioners Patrick and Pennamon voted against. Commissioner Cox abstained.

Probate Judge Linda Mock Keller sent a letter to the commissioners and to the board of education asking them to work together on redistricting to keep the lines the same. In the past, when the school and county had different districts, it was very confusing for voters, and required numerous ballots to accommodate the different lines.

The County Attorney told commissioners the first thing they needed to do for redistricting is send a letter to the Legislative Services Committee about reapportionment. Commissioners voted unanimously to move forward with that.

In other action at Monday’s meeting, commissioners:
•Voted 4-1 to move forward on a Sunday sales referendum to allow the sale of package beer and wine in the county on Sunday, in accordance with the new state law. The attorney said the state law says beer, wine and distilled spirits, and since the county doesn’t allow the sale of distilled spirits during the week, he wasn’t sure that the county could have the referendum. He said it depends on how the state law is worded. If it requires distilled spirits to be included, then from what he said the county could not allow the beer and wine sales since it doesn’t have distilled spirits sales. So, the commissioners voted to undo their approval until the attorney determines the legality.

•Voted unanimously to investigate the history of trucks purchased last year that had been obtained after they were repossessed from original purchasers. After discussion, commissioners agreed to look into the issue to try to determine of the county purchased faulty trucks, if proper preventive maintenance was done, if county procedures including a daily inspection of vehicles was followed.

•Voted unanimously to deny waiving the penalty for a late tax payment for property owner David Marbut. Mr. Marbut owns a lot on Lake Jackson and paid his taxes late. He said an employee of the Tax commissioner’s office told him if his payment was postmarked by the 19th he would not receive a penalty. He said his payment was, and he was assessed a penalty of $171.50. Commissioner Patrick said that with a little legwork, anyone could see that Mr. Marbut always pays his taxes late, and this time he got caught.

•Discussed surplus equipment that the county was planing to sell. Commissioner Patrick said that at the April 4 meeting, the commissioners declared certain items surplus, but did not expect action to be taken until the PWD director came back to the board with some prices, because the board was not happy with the prices quoted then. She said they never got prices. Mr. Wood said it was their understanding they were to find the best prices and take them to auction or do whatever necessary to get the best prices. The items have been taken to an auction site, and will be sold next month.

•Approved the use of land at the recreation department for a Tea Party rally. The commissioners discussed if they were setting any precedent, and decided it was like any other group. The organizers will have to provide the county with a copy of the insurance policy releasing the county from any liability, and they have agreed to make a $100 donation to the recreation department. The rally will be held in the area to the right of the ball fields, where the recent R-100 was set up.

•Heard from Mr. Wood that the county had received a disaster declaration after the tornado of April 27-28, and that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) would reimburse the county for most of its expense from the clean-up, which primarily is overtime of public works employees. Because of the limited amount of damage, the type declaration that the county received does not help individual property owners much.

•Came out of closed session and voted unanimously to have the chairman sign the consent order withi the Environmental Protection Division (EPD(), Georgia Departmetn of Natural Resources.