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Supes cut spending okay $.44 tax rate
Count draws $2.2 million reserves
The real estate tax rate for the FY 2008-09 year was set at 44 cents
per $100 value on Monday night on a 7-1 vote by County Supervisors.
Only ED#1 Supervisor R. E. "Dickie" Abbott opposed the rate, which
was earlier
advertised at 48 cents per $100 real estate value. Supervisors
approval followed two heated public hearings last week during which
County residents pleaded for lower tax rates. The lowered rate means
that the County expects to collect $22,984,400 in general property
taxes rather than the $23,234,800 earlier projected. It also means
that the County will have to dip deeper into its reserves ‹ taking
$2.230,274 versus the earlier projected $1,889,274.
The personal property tax rate was approved at $3.60 per $100 value
while the industrial machinery and tools tax will be $1.26 per $100
value. While the Board approved the budget, they delayed allocating
the funds until
their late June meeting since there were still questions about state
funds. And County Administrator Bryan Foster reminded Board members
that they will still be in a $250,000 hole created by the reduction
in state funds. That
money, he noted, will also have to come out of County reserves. ED#6
Supervisor Wayne Conner said he wants Supervisors to meet with
school board members and other agencies in July to begin mapping
plans to consolidate and reduce expenses. łThe Board," Conner said,
"needs to spend a full day addressing ways to pursue a level funding
budget for the next year." Chairman William Fitzgerald commented
that he was concerned about the
complaints from citizens about the reassessment process. He asked
his fellow Board members how they felt about having staff write a
letter to Commissioner of the Revenue Brenda Powell and County
Assessor Harold
Throckmorton, requesting the number of appeals made by citizens, how
they were resolved and what criteria was using in resolving them. He
said he would like to see a report from the Board of Equalization
about those
issues. ED#8 Supervisor Bryant Claiborne added that he felt such a
report was a good idea and ED#4 Supervisor Doug Bowman said he felt
the Board of Equalization should provide such a report.
"Reassessments were more of an issue than the (proposed) tax rate,"
said ED#5 Supervisor James Edmunds. "The way I see it either our
real estate was grossly undervalued prior to the reassessment or it
was grossly overvalued during the reassessment." Edmunds added that
he figured the Supervisors had made everyone mad since they had cut
funding to every County department.
See link below of email sent to and received from Board of Supervisors |
online