The Oktibbeha County Board of Supervisors is planning a 2010-2011 fiscal year budget which includes a 4.48-mill ad valorem tax increase.
The board held a public meeting Monday at the Oktibbeha County Courthouse and more than two dozen citizens turned out to see the proposed budget, which included an ad valorem tax increase from 106.49 mills to 110.97. For the owner of a $100,000 home, the increase equals an extra $44.80 per year in taxes. The owner of a $200,000 home would have to pay an extra $89.60 per year.
Supervisors hope to vote on the budget during their regularly scheduled meeting Sept. 6 at 10 a.m. in the courthouse boardroom.
While the 2009-2010 fiscal year budget included 5.14-mill tax increase, with 4.28 mills designated to pay for a portion of the OCH Regional Medical Center bond issue, the county is adding another 2.58 mills this coming year to help pay for the remainder of the bond issue. However, the 4.28 mills pledged last year is being reduced to 4.01 mills this year because the value of a mill has increased from $276,370 to $295,143 over the past 12 months due to the county”s increased assessed value, County Administrator Don Posey said.
Aside from the millage increase for the hospital bond, 1.25 mills in the proposed 2010-2011 budget would go to the general county fund, .45 mills would go toward roads and .55 mills would be used for bridges.
Supervisors need to increase revenues to help balance the budget, Posey said. The board already plans to cut $218,100 from its own budget, plus $215,550 from the Building and Grounds Department and $215,550 from the Oktibbeha County Sheriff”s Department, among other measures.
Part of the reason the county is in such dire financial times is because revenues are down across the board, Posey said. The county averages about $300,000 annually in revenues from its gas severance fund, which comes from about a dozen natural gas wells in the western part of the county, but projected gas severance funds for the 2009-2010 fiscal year are projected to be just $68,835 due to low gas sales, Posey said. The county also has to pay increased costs for prisoners at the Oktibbeha County Jail for things like medical care, Posey said.
“We”re in tough times,” Board of Supervisors President Marvell Howard said. “Tough times require tough measures.”
Several residents spoke out against a millage increase, while others were grateful the board showed citizens where their tax dollars are spent each year.
Local architect Chris Cosper asked the board what a budget with no millage increase would look like, but supervisors were leery to answer.
“Everything I see here is an argument for a millage increase,” Cosper said, noting he wished the board also would have provided an option without an increase.
Posey eventually warned the residents in attendance that the county would have to take drastic measures if it did not include a millage increase in the upcoming budget.
“You”d have to cut out some people,” Posey said. “That”s basically the only way you can do a zero millage increase — you cut employees.”
The county also is looking at a possible hiring freeze and, in a worst-case scenario, could eventually resort to furloughs and layoffs, Posey said.
“I hope we don”t have to go that route, but it”s not far off,” he said.
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