Banks County taxpayers spoke out Monday night against a proposed tax hike and the board of commissioners listened. The BOC agreed to go back to its budget to make more cuts in an effort to not raise the millage rate as much as had been proposed.
The Banks County Board of Commissioners will have a called meeting at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec .9, on the budget and millage rate. The meeting will be held in the board room of the new annex building.
The BOC had a called meeting set Monday night to vote on the proposed 1.75 millage rate increase but instead took no action and agreed to look for more areas to make cuts.
More than 60 concerned citizens attended the meeting Monday night with 11 people speaking out against a tax hike. More than 30 people attended an earlier public hearing on the tax issue.
The BOC had proposed increasing the millage rate by 1.75 mills to 9.9. This would be an additional $70 in taxes per $100,000 in property value. This would mean a person who owns a $300,000 home would owe an additional $210 in taxes. The tax bills will already be $173 more than last year due to the state no longer providing the Home Owner’s Tax Relief Grant.
“Personally, I’m willing to go back to the table and see if we can cut more,” commissioner Rickey Cain said. “I’m willing to go back to the drawing board and see where we can cut. I think we can find more places to cut.”
Commissioner Joe Barefoot agreed: “I think we need to revisit this. Perhaps this 1.75 millage increase can be reduced.”
BOC chairman Milton Dalton added, “We’ll do whatever we can to get it lower than it is.”
At the public hearing Monday night, Jerry Shaw was among those speaking against the proposed tax hike.
“We’re in one of the deepest recessions that any of us have every been through,” he said. “Some people can’t afford to feed their families…There are a lot of things that can be put on hold…You are asking the taxpayers for a bailout because you have made bad decisions.”
Brenda Duckett said, “Our people don’t have the money for more taxes.”
Another man, who said he and his wife are both in their 70s and only have Social Security as income, said: “We just barely get by. I don’t know if we can come up with this or not.
Edwin Booth said, “As a retiree, you don’t have a lot of resources to go back to. A lot of people don’t have resources to reach in their pocket and pull out more money. I know it’s difficult to cut but we all have to do it.”
Gary Clark, who said he has taken a pay cut as an employee of the city of Gainesville, said, “How can we expect people to pay taxes if they can’t even afford their homes…Sales tax revenue is down because people can’t afford to spend…You are going to have to do some furloughs…You are going to have to make some cuts…Raising taxes 21 percent is not the right thing to do. People are going to lose their property.”
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Note that the meeting to review the budget will be held at the courthouse annex Board Room on 12/9/09 at 4 pm and the BOC regular scheduled meeting will be same day at 6:30 pm. They may only allow questions/comments at the 4 pm meeting. I feel that some "behind the scene decision" was made so that the BOC didn't have to answer to the taxpayers.
I agree that $70,010.90 yearly being paid to Dalton is outrageous. Dalton said at the meeting on 11/30 "We'll do whatever we can to get it lower than it is". He could start by reducing his monthly pay of $5,834.24. What a rip off to the taxpayers!!
Do you live in Banks County?
Were you at the BOC meeting about raising property taxes 21%?
Where have you been for the past few weeks? Oh you must be one of the BC employees that does not live in the county and the property tax increase wont effect you. This is not about employees being in good standings you "IDIOT" its about Banks County's property tax increase.
I too agree with all the post about furlough's being needed if cost cant be cut elsewhere.
There are quite a few things that can be trimmed and cut to lower this budget without an outrageous 21% property tax increase.
Most everyone that has a job has had to make concessions with their pay and/or their insurance. We all have to work together and all need to make these concessions especially for the ones that are on fixed incomes that have no other choice. These elderly people that have owned their land for generations could possibly loose everything because our BOC does not want to take concessions theirselves.
and subitize them with $1,000,000.00(half of BC budget that we pay ours)and see what happens. They seem to make ends meet just fine.I have not heard any complaints sine it was done.
You think you are so smart, you need to do your homework! ISO is not just based on a 4:1 paid v/s Vol ratio. ISO uses a number of facts in their ISO calculation.
#1 Being Manpower; yes you have a point more credit is given for paid staff than volunteer, however lets go back two years ago when the majority of BC/EMS staff was volunteer. This County can not afford to replace all the volunteers that left with paid people.
#2 ISO counts training credits, under the present BC Fire/EMS training Banks Co. has paid employees that cant even pass the state core comp books. Yes, I do know a little about what is going in Banks Co. Training is more than going to Homer and talking about what kind of training we need to do. Training use to mean something "you know territory familiarization would be great training". I hear all the time on my scanner of all you professional firefighters getting lost going to calls. Keep it up guys sounds great!! Example: The other day a relative of mine had an emergency at his house, it took personnel over 15 minutes to arrive, and this residence is within one mile of the fire station and the unit responded from that station. A lot of times paid personnel have to ask for directions three and four times. Core comp books for the last two years were in question by the state and had to be checked twice for questionable signatures. For state training to count it had to be given an approval number by standards and training. EMS training does not even count for ISO, so all that EMS training that is being conducted in Homer does not count. ISO requires every paid staff to receive 240 hours of fire related training to include 6 Co. drills, 4 multi Co. drills, 3 night drills. This training is a hands on training not in the classroom discussion. In addition the state requires 120 hours of approved fire training with the total completion of the core comp. book.
#3 Equipment ISO requires: Banks Co. is almost adequate except for the equipment needed for credit on the 3 to 4 high rise motels at Banks crossing. Banks Co has an aerial that was counted for ISO but now has failed the aerial test in 2007 but was kept in service after it failed the test.
#4 Water Systems: Banks Co has a fair water system but can anyone tell me how much water each hydrant is the county flows? I have not witnessed a flow test or seen records on any hydrant flow test. I know for a fact that weed spraying does not give you points on ISO.
Be careful what you write, the public sees you.
Now that we have discussed that, these post are for the discussion of budget cuts and how we can accomplish this.
Forget private services that's a load of manure.
Do a national search for a qualified Fire Chief and EMS Director with no ties to Banks County.
Hand them the keys and say clean it up and reorganize it.
Leave them alone for 2 years and tell Turk, Wells , Clark, Pollard, Creasy, Taylor, Mosley,Crowder,Kitchens and ALL the rest who started this peeing match to kindly stay out of Banks County Fire/EMS. UNTIL all the cancer is removed only then can we move on.
You all need to accept the fact here: Times are hard, people are losing their jobs, and I am sorry to say this but employees of this county are no better than anyone else to have to take a day off. This economy has affected all of us, so to the employees that are making yourselves look like your 2 years old, please be thankful you still have your job. I know people that don't have there job anymore and they would be happy to take a furlough day!!!!!!
By the way: The BOC has not made a decision on making any cuts to employees yet.
Just be thankful for what you have!!!!!!