Residents express concern over proposed budget at first of two public hearings

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September 11, 2012

Residents express concern over proposed budget at first of two public hearings

Faith Harper Jacksonville Daily Progress The Jacksonville Daily Progress Tue Sep 11, 2012, 08:21 AM CDT

RUSK — Residents expressed concern over the county's spending at the first of two public hearings on the county's proposed tax rate Monday morning.

The proposed tax rate is 59 cents per $100 valuation, a 2-cent increase from this year. County Auditor L.H. Crockett said the increase will bring in an additional $400,000.

For a $100,000 home, a resident can expect to pay $590 per year in county taxes.

“I want to see our county be strong,” Rusk resident Robbie Tosh told commissioners. “We have a lot of citizens on a fixed income, and $40 or $50 a year in tax increase — that's a lot of money. It may not be to some to us, but it's a lot of money to them and we need to see what we can do to conserve money.”

The nearly $18 million 2012 – 2013 fiscal budget, adopted on Aug. 27, requires nearly $600,000 to balance. Crocket said he anticipates the county's reserve to be between $1 million and $1.5 million by the end of the fiscal year.

The adopted budget is about $1 million smaller than last year and includes a 3 percent cost of living increase to all employees. The increase accounts for $200,174.

The road and bridge fund took the hardest hit, down to $4.43 million, compared to $4.87 million this year.

The funds are divided among precincts based on road miles in the precinct.

Precinct 1 was cut by about $44,000 to $674,000. Precinct 2 is down about $240,000 to $1.27 million. Precinct 3 lost $650,000 to $1.01 million, and Precinct 4 was cut by $278,000 to $942,000.

The budget calls for decreasing the general fund by $1 million from about $13.4 million this year to about $12.1 million. Crockett said the decrease came in not transferring funds out of the account, including the $793,000 transferred to road and bridge, $50,000 to permanent improvements and $106,000 to the airport.

Tosh suggested the county commissioners share road equipment and use the appraisal district to collect taxes as ways to conserve funds, and said he would like to see the figures of where the county money has gone.

“How much money do we have in Cherokee County?” Tosh asked. “How much is the reserve fund, and what is the reserve fund? What it it reserved for? There are a lot of things we need to look at.”

Resident Hank Jones said he was concerned with the amount of funds coming out of reserves.

“This is the fifth year we have taken money out of reserves to balance your budget,” he said. “The only thing I would ask you is if this was your business, would you be operating it like that?”

The county will hold a second public hearing on the tax rate at 10 a.m. Sept. 14 in the courthouse, and the rate is expected to be adopted at 10 a.m. on Sept. 24 in the county courthouse.

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Residents express concern over proposed budget at first of two public hearings

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