Members of the Baxter County Quorum Court approved the proposed 2017 county budget of slightly more than $14.4 million during its regular meeting Tuesday.
The court’s Budget Committee had several meetings during which the committee went over each item in the budget before sending it to the full Court for approval.
Many of the funding categories in the county budget are restricted by law as to their use. Other money only flows through the county treasury before being passed along to other entities such as the county library.
It is in the $7.8 million County General Fund that members of the Court have the most discretion in terms of making spending decisions. Major sources of revenue for that fund are sale tax proceeds, state turnback and real and personal taxes. The sales tax is, by far, the largest revenue producer. County Treasurer Jenay Mize told the Court’s Budget Committee on November 21st that the sales tax “keeps us where we are” and warned that “if the sales tax tanks, then just hold on”.
The county has a very low millage rate dedicated to helping provide money for the County General Fund. In 2015, for example, the 0.8 of a mill dedicated to that purpose produced slightly more than $443,000 while the sale tax produced almost $4 million for the fund.
The Court can increase the millage for the General Fund to a maximum of five mills, but has chosen not to exercise that authority. It has been pointed out that Baxter County does not have a spending problem, but does have a revenue problem. Mize has said that consideration would have to be given to either raising the millage or the sales tax to address the problem.
During a meeting of the Budget Committee on November 21st, Baxter County Sheriff John Montgomery said he had taken money out of his 2017 budget request that would have gone for cars to replace some of the aging vehicles in his fleet in order to help ensure that raises for county employees could be funded.
However, Montgomery warned that shortly after the first of the year, he would be discussing not only the funding of replacement vehicles, but problems at the county jail as well.
One of the largest departments funded out of the County General Fund is the Sheriff’s Office and jail, with a combined 2017 budget of slightly more than $3.1 million.
The County Road and Bridge Department, which has its own source of funding, has a proposed 2017 budget – including the operation of the county quarry — of slightly more than $4.1 million.
As the proposed 2017 budget was being discussed, two different proposals emerged for handling the placement of a staff member who would be in charge of Human Relations duties for the county and whether payroll functions would be kept in-house or outsourced.
County Judge Mickey Pendergrass proposed that the HR staffer be under his office and that payroll functions be outsourced at an estimated cost of slightly more than $35,000. County Clerk Canda Reese presented a counter proposal to the Court’s Budget Committee on November 21st that the HR position be included in her office and that the current in-house payroll operation that is currently housed in Reese’s office be kept as it is.
The court’s Personnel Committee will meet to discuss which office the as-yet-to-be-hired HR director would operate under and whether the payroll functions now handled by Reese’s office should be outsourced. Justice Bill Lucas, chairman of the Personnel Committee, said his group had approved the HR position during a meeting on November 2nd, but had not fully addressed “chain of command” issues for that person and whether the in-house payroll operation would be moved or remain as is. A date has yet to be set for the meeting, Lucas told KTLO News.
In other business, the Court approved amending an ordinance passed in 2013 that established a “voluntary contribution” to fund the county’s animal control operation. The initial ordinance authorized the inclusion of the voluntary contribution on statements which went to the owners of real property in the county. The amendment will allow inclusion of the voluntary contribution on statements for personal property tax as well. The change would give all taxpayers in the county the option to contribute to animal control if they so choose.
The Court expedited the passage of the ordinance in order to meet the deadline for the printing of tax statements.
The Court also approved the re-appointment of Michael Beshears, Gil Losurdo and Roy Nelson to the Clarkridge Fire Protection District Board of Commissioners.
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