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Forsyth County raising taxes
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CUMMING – Forsyth County property owners' tax bills will be higher this year if the county approves the millage rate increase it proposed. Even with a 0.688 rate increase, the Board of Commissioners will have to find ways to cover a large deficit in its 2010 budget.
The board voted at its June 29 work session to advertise the tax increase, taking the M&O millage rate from 3.814 to 4.502. That's still one of the lowest millage rates in the area.
At the same time, the board approved raising the fire services millage rate to 1.81 for the sole purpose of collecting $650,000 a year toward vehicle replacement. The 0.7 mill increase will add approximately $5 to the property taxes on a $300,000 home.
"The board approved $1.8 million to build the Silver City fire house," said Fire Chief Danny Bowman. "But we do not have a pumper to assign to that station."
To cut its budgeted expenses immediately, the board agreed to eliminate 27 of the 33 positions designated by a Staff Utilization study as not part of its core service needs. County Manager Doug Derrer had asked the board for direction on the 33 positions.
"We are trying to get core level staffing to provide core level services," Derrer said.
Once the county got the results of the study, it was apparent it could get leaner, he said.
Commission Chairman Charles Laughinghouse asked how many of those positions were vacant, which was 27.
"I would suggest serious consideration in not making any cuts in positions that are staffed until Jan. 1," he said.
Taking out the 27 funded, vacant positions would reduce this year's projected expenditures, Laughinghouse said. He did not want staff to be laid off now if it could be avoided.
"After the situation we had last year, I would much prefer to see people had as much notice as possible. And maybe things could change," he said.
Laughinghouse had proposed an even higher millage rate, as he expects revenues to continue to drop. The county's tax digest will remain flat because the state General Assembly passed a bill that Gov. Sonny Perdue signed into law freezing all assessments. Unless new construction comes along or property owners make significant additions to their buildings, any property assessment will be the same for the next several years.
That adds to the county's revenue problems. Sales tax revenues are down below $2 million a month. County Finance Officer Bill Thomas expects those tax revenues to fall below even the reduced estimates.
"It does appear that if the continued monthly decrease of about 9 percent continues until the end of the year, we will not even reach the $23 million we anticipate," Thomas said.
Property and sales taxes provide most of the revenue for the county. With property assessments frozen, in some cases at lower values due to the housing boom going bust, taking sales prices down with it, and no construction growth anticipated, the tax digest is flat at best. Residents and businesses are spending less, drastically cutting the sales tax revenue. That has created a projected deficit in the proposed 2010 county budget, and a chance of a deficit in this year's budget.
Commissioners had proposals from staff for employee layoffs, furloughs, unpaid holidays, increases in health care cost contributions by those employees, and millage rate increases. Thomas suggested the commissioners might consider a combination of these.
"Well, I'm not for a millage rate increase and I think I'm a minority of one," said Commissioner Jim Harrell.
He would balance the budget with a variety of options, including cutting the fund balance reserve by $4 million down to a level that meets the 25 percent of expenditures the county set as its reserve policy.
"I don't' have a problem in a bad year of using reserves. For me, that's exactly what they are there for. It's for bad times," Harrell said.
He also thought the budget could be cut more and employees could taken on more of their health care cost burden.
"That's not services that we give to the people of the county," Harrell said. "So I don't have a problem in taking a hard look at that part, at least for one year."
Thomas warned that if they county has another bad year, all of its reserves could be wiped out.
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