Few people showed as the Marion County Board of Supervisors held a public hearing on the budget and proposed property tax increases Thursday.
However, county resident Randy McNease shared ideas and frustration for several minutes.
“If any of your truck drivers comes up to you and says, ‘I can’t make ends meet; I might need another $3,000 this year.’ Is he going to get that $3,000? He’s going to have to make cuts. He’ll have to figure out what’s more important. ‘Do I eat or fix the roof on my house? I need new tires for my truck.’ Yet taxes are going up so he’ll have to buy a used tire,” McNease said. “I’m not saying that we don’t need it (tax increase), I’m just saying the majority of people around here don’t have it.”
Board members expressed concerns about looming federal bridge inspections and potential closures and frustration with unfunded state and federal mandates.
If no changes are made, the Board will adopt the budget, which comes with a more than four-mill tax increase, at 2 p.m. on Sept. 13 at its offices on Courthouse Square.
“This is not the first year that we’ve known that we needed to generate funds, but understanding the taxpayers’ situation, we held off as long as we could,” Board President Calvin Newsom said. “Marion County needs a shot in the arm. We don’t have the businesses and really can’t compete with other counties.”
CPA Charlie Prince updated the board and public on the budget.
“What you’re considering at this time is a 4.58-mill increase from 134.47 mills to 139.05 mills. That is made up of a .58 increase in the county school request, a proposed 3.75 mill increase in the general fund and a .25 on the road construction indebtedness.”
Prince said one of the reasons for the tax increase is increased costs for public safety and the courts, but he said Sheriff Berkley Hall and County Comptroller Susie Bridges have “have done a really good job budget-wise this year.”
“We have, in the past, under-funded the custody of prisoners. It looks like that it is going to be close to $1.2 million this year and we’ve got budgeted close to $1.25 million to cover that. We’re continuing to work on the facility.”
Prince said he did have good news about the county’s general fund.
“We are about 5 percent below our total budget for the year,” he said. “You and the department heads have done a good job with what you’ve had.”
When it came time for the public to address the Board, McNease spoke up about concerns of the increase.
“I’m fully aware that nothing I say is going to change the fact that taxes are going up,” he said. “In all honesty, if this Board or any other public entity really wanted the people that are concerned to voice their opinions, they wouldn’t have these meetings at 10 a.m. when those people are at work trying to make the money to pay their taxes.”
McNease said that many people in government, private business and on Social Security have not received increases that would allow them to share a higher tax burden.
“I fail to understand how we can justify an increase, even if garbage collection is justified,” he said. “Somebody needs to remember – a budget system is the way I live. I have this much money coming in and I have to figure out how I can dish it out to get the best benefit out of it.”
Newsom said the increase was a difficult decision, but they have no choice but to deal with state and federal mandates.
“They can put us in jail. These things are mandated. Our workers right now are just loyal to the county. They have not had raises on 10 or 11 years. We try to do whatever we can,” he said.
Threatened bridge closures by the state and feds weigh heavily on the minds of the Board with District 2 Supervisor Terry Broome calling it a “crisis.”
“We have 53 bridges in Marion County that are on the federal inspection list either this year or next year,” Broome said. “The closure of more than half of those bridges would be devastating. The federal government says that we are no longer to have wood pile bridges. Our county engineers have been inspecting them for 30 years or more. The federal government has decided that is no good. They all deteriorate, but they still have a load-bearing capacity on them. We’ve been watching and dropping the weigh limit on them the best we could and keep them open. The federal government doesn’t agree with that.”
He said part of the reason for the increase is so the board will be able to react when that situation comes up between September and December.
Pictured Above: CPA Charlie Prince discusses the budget with the Marion County Board of Supervisors Thursday. At left is District 2 Supervisor Terry Broome. | Photo by Mark Rogers
