White County Budget Committee held another special meeting, which was June 24, in an attempt to resolve the matter of the property tax rate.
Last week’s full court meeting saw the proposed $1.57 rate shot down, so the committee had to begin from there. While there was no resolution sent to full court during this meeting, there was a solid plan formed to have each commissioner speak to White County Executive Denny Wayne Robinson about their thoughts. They will speak with him regarding a budget plan that hovers around the $1.42 range.
Executive Robinson began the meeting with the following, “I have been working on these budgets for 20 years.”
He explained all the roles he has had a hand in with the county throughout the years, saying, “There is not a job in this county that I ask somebody to do that I wouldn’t do myself. That can’t continue forever. I may get hit by a truck tomorrow, so I have intentionally backed off being involved in the budget this time. I wanted to see some leadership rise or something, so you all may have noticed I haven’t said much. That obviously wasn’t a good plan. We are in a mess with this budget. Basically, I am going to get back involved.”
Due to this, Executive Robinson put together his own proposal to present to the Budget Committee. Last year, the Budget Committee passed a deficit budget of $500,000, and Executive Robinson points out that the promise among the entire commission was to try and fix that deficit this year. The $1.21 tax rate that was unofficially sent by the state would get only $200,000 of that deficit covered, still leaving $300,000 in deficit.
“We can’t continue down that road,” he said. “We have done that for the past three or four years with the anticipation of this coming.”
After covering all the essential payments that the county must cover, and citing that deficit, Executive Robinson cited $1.38 as the lowest the property tax could be while covering just the essentials. That $1.38 would not include any of the raises, new positions requested by departments, or fixing the deficit budget. From here, the Budget Committee had the option to either work up from $1.38 or work down from $1.57.
With the $1.42 range comes the fact that removing the deficit would add about 3.8 cents to the tax rate, so that is where the hovering range originates.
“You’re looking at $1.38 just to keep the doors open, and I’m not suggesting that $1.38 be the rate because that doesn’t help your employees at all,” Executive Robinson said. “But that’s where we have to start with.”
This is where the executive’s plan comes into play. Working off the numbers he has presented, he will call and speak with each commissioner, one on one, to see where they stand on tweaking things higher and lower. After a lot more deliberation, that is the plan with which the Budget Committee adjourned. The next Budget Committee meeting after the executive’s plan will be 5:30 p.m., July 2, where all the commissioners’ input will go into forming a spreadsheet and proposal for the full court.
While that was the consensus met after the two-hour meeting, there was a lot of discussion in between, as five other commissioners not on the Budget Committee were present to give their thoughts as well.
Commissioner Dakota White asked if the commissioners could begin whitling down what they feel could be taken out or lowered, to try and reach some consensuses among the commissioners present at that time.
Commissioner T.K. Austin responded, “This committee started at $1.71 and whittled it down to $1.57. That’s where we were at, so if you want it lower, you come up with suggestions what to whittle it down and where to whittle it.”
Commissioner Cain Rogers interjected to ask where Commission Chairman Derrick Hutchings was at because “he made a motion but didn’t support it in full court.” Commissioner Rogers is referring to the $1.57 that was sent to full court last week, which was approved during the Budget Committee by Commissioner Hutchings, but he voted no to it during the full court.
Commissioner Hutchings had defended this prior during the meeting by saying, “Something needed to be sent to full court. I did. And I listened to constituents, and they didn’t like $1.57, so I voted no for it.”
When Commissioner Rogers asked his stance again, Hutchings responded, “We heard in full court that some people didn’t feel like they had input. I’m waiting to give input until I hear from others with input.”
When Commissioners Hutchings asked for Budget Chairman Kyle Goff’s stance, Goff said, “I see what you’re doing, Commissioner Hutchings. Just keep poking.”
Commissioner Goff continued by asking Finance Director Chad Marcum about some discrepancy between another of his proposals he delivered to the Budget Committee and Executive Robinson’s numbers. Marcum explained that the detailed report he gave to the commissioners was running at $1.42 with an 8% raise to county employees because the budget would still be running a slight deficit, rather than clear all the prior year’s deficit. Marcum’s detailed report was still running a $167,453 deficit.
Commissioner Cranford also cleared up his stance, saying, “I am 100% on board with taking this pay study that we did and classifications and giving these guys the pay raise they need. This was not done on a whim. This was done to, basically, you know, make us market value. These 3% and 5% raises are a lot of raises in a lot of ways, but when you are 30% underpaid, that’s a drop in the bucket.”
Commissioner Cranford continued to clarify that he believes that the commissioners have a duty to do right by their word and give the raises, as “we said just give us one more year.” He warns that if county employees are not paid well, that the county will not have the best employees possible. Those employees would leave, and White County would suffer because of that.
Commissioner Hutchings, after hearing from others on their stance, then began some of his suggestions and thoughts. He said, “I would prefer not to give up the tier system that we’ve created. We got to talk about the elephant in the room. Nobody wants Denny Wayne [Robinson] to have an assistant. That person needs to come out, and nobody wants to have an EMA [Emergency Management Agency] director. We need to give the EMA part-time director- he’s making $15,000 a year. I think he’s worth three times that, but I feel we need to give him a raise in a part-time position. Nobody wants him full time.”
Commissioner Goff asked if Commissioner Hutchings had the penny increments of those changes before letting him continue.
Commissioner Hutchings listed off some of the changes. The executive assistant was $40,000. The EMA director increase was $66,000. Hutchings said he felt that the part-time raise should put him at around $25,000, so that would still cut a whole penny. Then, Hutchings mentioned that they are budgeted for two new deputy positions. Rather than give those positions, Hutchings suggested focusing on getting the pay better to assure the existing positions can all be filled, with nobody leaving for higher paying jobs.
Hutchings suggested dropping an uncertified mechanic from the budget, cutting about $40,000. Hutchings then got into specifics with the raises, listing some categories they could pull out to tweak rather than giving flat 15% raises like originally proposed. Another example he listed was the animal control officer going from $15 to $21 dollars an hour. He felt that was one that could be trimmed down. He also listed some drops in their tier system, floating the idea by the committee to see if they were interested. Overall, with the cuts to the raises and changes in the tier system, on top of the positions he mentioned, he ballparked about 1.2 million to 1.5 million rather than 2.2.
Commissioner Cranford mentioned that they must think long term as well, but Commissioner Hutchings responded, “Yes, but you have to get something passed, too.”
Commissioner T.K. Austin challenged the other commissioners, asking, “If we go with the $1.30 something, whatever, are you going to be willing to add another 5 cents to it next year?”
Commissioner Golden responded, “Well you may not be here next year.”
Commissioner Hutchings mentioned that they would all be there next year, unless one of them decided to step down or quit. Commissioner Golden agreed that she could walk out the door if she felt like it.
Commissioner T.K. Austin said, “Well if you’re going to sit here with that mentality of saying we may not be here next year, we’re looking at this long term here. That’s the problem with this - nobody has looked long term. They all say this will get us by this year. This will get us by this year. Nobody’s looked at it long term.”
Commissioner Golden interjected, “You’re the reason we’re in the shape we’re in now because you’ve been here longer than any of us.”
Commissioner T.K. Austin responded that he and Commissioner Goff tried to implement a similar system two years ago. After that brief bit of heated response, Goff reset the tempo to continue with the budget discussion. Commissioner Goff mentioned that Hutchings’s ideas made impact, but he is skeptical that they would have time for Marcum to make all the major shifts and redrafts to the pay scale.
Despite all the discussion in between, the Budget Committee came back to Executive Robinson’s original plan of one-on-one planning. As previously mentioned, the Budget Committee will return at 5:30 p.m., July 2 to hopefully send a proper resolution to full court.
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