Bottom Line
The Commission voted unanimously (in the end -- there's more to the story) to approve a $95 million operating budget for the county, without increasing the tax rate of $1.61, which is the post-reassessment state-certified rate.
The bottom line not discussed in the meeting: Most homeowners will see an increase in their tax bill because the percentage of increase in assessment was greater for residential property than for commercial property. Our personal tax bill will likely go up about 40% or so, to give you some idea, and we did appeal our assessment and it was lowered somewhat. Keep in mind that there IS tax relief available for disabled and elderly homeowners; contact the Sullivan County Trustee's Office at (423) 323-6464.
Intro and Opinion
The meeting was long, contentious, and generally not productive. The open public hearing was set for 4pm and very few commissioners showed up for that. Commissioner King, the chair of the budget committee, called this to order and generously tried to let everyone have their say. Unfortunately most residents seemed ignorant of Roberts Rules of Order or the need to follow them. They didn't know how the reassessment worked, what the certified rate meant, how budgets work, or how to civilly and effectively raise a concern or suggest an alternative. I spoke with one man during the break who, before the meeting, had not known how many services he benefits from as a Kingsport resident that the county budget contributes to. Fortunately, he had come to the meeting early enough to speak with several commissioners who explained multiple points to him. Another man spoke during public comment about money "wasted" on roundabouts and sidewalks; during the break, a county employee came to him, introduced herself, and explained that all those projects were paid for with grants and did not come out of the county budget. This ignorance is partially an individual's responsibility to overcome, to be informed and involved, but certainly the county as a whole and the commission in particular need to improve their outreach and the availability of detailed information. Might I suggest quarterly "county halls" for informative presentations and question and answer sessions?
And let me go ahead and say here that it wasn't just the public; most questions posed during the meeting by the commissioners rightly should have been asked of the budget committee during their meetings, and frankly many of the men on the commission don't seem to be able to communicate in a way that doesn't insult the person from whom they are requesting information.
I am not here to advocate for tax increases, but in the end this "conservative" commission voted to deplete their savings by more than one-third in one single year. There is nothing "conservative" or "fiscally responsible" about that. Only Commissioner King had the guts to stand up for the work he and his committee made up of fellow Commissioners Calton, Akard, Crosswhite, Gardner, Ireson, Jones, and Vanover had done on this budget for the past seven months. What happens if everything this year doesn't go as planned? What happens next year? These are the questions that the Commissioners will face in the coming year, and I'll here to watch.
The meeting itself
When the regular meeting was called to order at 6pm, there were only two commissioners absent from the meeting itself, McMurry and Horne. The public comment was more of the same about the property tax rate, plus some meaningful input from volunteers from the Deery Inn and the Holston Heritage Museum requesting help from the county for upkeep and promotion. Long-time Extension Agent Chris Ramsey introduced Melody Rose who has taken the natural resources position with the Extension Office and may become the director if I understood correctly.
Item 2
There were only three items of old business on the agenda after normal opening business: Item 1, the tax rate; Item 2, the appropriations to the county; and Item 3, appropriations to nonprofits. Item 1 was moved to the end of the agenda. Sponsor King offered an amendment to Item 2, removing the $800K that was appropriated for NETTA. (NETTA - Northeast Tennessee Tourism Association- is supposed to get half of the hotel-motel tax collected by the county, which should be just under that number for the year. Instead of putting that number in the budget, at the end of each quarter, a motion will have to be made to appropriate that money to NETTA.) Because the sponsor offered the amendment, it didn't have to be voted on.
Then there was a long back and forth and round and round that had something to do with the new Economic and Community Development position filled by the mayor with the former director of Zoning and Planning. There was an amendment proposed by Commissioner Glover that seemed to fund that position contingent upon the commission approving that position and getting a job description. The amendment was accepted by Sponsor King. Discussion on this continued for about two hours. Commissioner Vanover offered an amendment to move $75K from zoning to mayor's budget to fund the position (which is currently still being paid out of zoning). This amendment failed by a vote of 9 yes to 13 no.
County Attorney Street opined that the commission did not have to ok every position filled by department heads. Glover read the statute that he believed gave the commission that authority but the statute clearly states only Directors and above need the approval of the commission.
The discussion went back to Item 2 with two amendments (the NETTA one and the Glover one). Commissioner Ireson asked County Attorney Street directly if the amendment was a legal one. A recess was called.
Upon returning to order, County Attorney Street clearly stated that the Glover amendment would harm the county's financial situation and that it was out of order. He further stated that the questions that the commissioners were asking were all legitimate but should have been asked of the budget committee months ago. There was a motion by Commissioner Akard to defer Items 1,2 and 3 until (time to be decided), seconded by Commissioner Slagle, but Commissioner Ward asked Akard to pull the motion because he really wants to go on vacation. Akard withdrew the motion.
The question for Item 2 with two amendments was again called. Chair John Gardner asked Commissioner Glover if he would withdraw his amendment and he said no. Chair Gardner asked Commissioner King if he still accepted that amendment and he said yes. At that point Chairman Gardner ruled the amendment out of order and it was dropped.
Item 2 with one amendment was again taken up. Ireson and Carr offered an amendment of increasing the input from the county's fund balance enough that there would be no tax increase over the certified rate. Deputy Mayor and Director of Finance Larry Bailey opined that using that much of the general fund would not be a good idea, and could pique the interest of the state comptroller. Commissioners Means and Harvey quickly opined that they really didn't want to vote for any tax increase. Ireson withdrew that amendment.
The question for Item 2 as amended (only the original amendment involving NETTA) was called and passed unanimously.
Item 3
Item 3 was offered by Commissioner King with the amendment that the $800K for NETTA be struck, and the vote was unanimous to pass.
Item 1
Item 1 was offered by King with amendment to take the proposed tax rate to $1.66, or .05 over the state certified rate. Ireson offered an amendment to reduce general fund rate to .63377 (from the original .72287 and King's amendment of .68377) which would take the overall tax rate for county down to the state-certified $1.6129 rate, with the balance needed to be drawn from the fund balance. The question was called on the Ireson amendment and it passed with a vote of 20 yes, 1 no, with the no being from Commissioner and Budget Committee Chair King. (There were 22 Commissioners present so I'm not sure what happened to my count.)
The question was called for Item 1 as amended; the vote was unanimous and the budget was passed.
During announcements, Commissioner Glover demanded that the Commissioner Gardner and County Attorney Street provide him in writing their reasoning for his amendment being out of order.
The meeting was adjourned at 9:11pm.
No comments:
Post a Comment