Some County Departments Feel The Cut

County Departments felt the brunt of the a $1.7 million dollar deficit that loomed over Jefferson County, during the Jefferson County Budget Committee meeting on Tuesday evening, May 19, 2015. Following last week’s County Commission meeting where the proposed mineral tax, that the Budget Committee had assigned to cover $750,000 of the fiscal year 2015-2016’s debt , failed to prove that it could generate that amount of revenue and , ultimately, also failed to find favor with the required two thirds of Commission, the Budget Committee came to the table knowing those assigned funds were not going to be a part of budget proposal. Straight out of the box, Committee Member David Seal offered a motion that addressed $686,222 of the shortfall with a combination of revenue and cuts to various County Departments. However, Seals’ motion, 2nd by Kesterson, failed in a tie vote with Committee Members Turner, Beeler, Blevins, Gaut and Tucker voting against.

Jefferson County Mayor Palmieri was vocal in his dissatisfaction with the Committee wading into County departmental budgets that could cause personnel cuts. He stated that the Committee and Commission have little knowledge of the daily operations of the various departments and should not be selecting line items for cuts. Palmieri urged the Committee to reconsider their position on a property tax increase, referencing the two former Director’s of Finance who had figured that it would take a significant tax increase, in the neighborhood of 46 cents, to cover the building program. He noted that the former Commission had not stepped up and covered the cost of the building program and said that it was fiscally irresponsible for the current Committee and Commission to not address the issue and, instead, cut County departments and services to the citizens. Several Committee Members stated their reluctance to increase property tax after making the wheel tax promise to let the property tax stand.

The Committee came to a consensus on cutting $100,000 from the Highway Department, thanking Road Superintendent Tipton for the department’s contribution to funding the deficit. They also agreed on the Sanitation Department budget that had already cut 3%, as was requested. Some members of the Committee voiced their disappointment in departments that did not bring in a 3% cut. However, Jefferson County Finance Director Potts stated that some departments could not make the requested cut due to state mandates or because there was not anything left to cut that would allow the department to remain in service. EMA Director Phillips, whose department had made the requested cut, stated that he knew that the larger departments were going to have to take the biggest hit in the budget because some of the smaller departments simply didn’t have a large enough budget to cut. Jefferson County Sheriff McCoig reminded the Committee that the department heads were requested, a few budget cycles ago, to work on a long range plan for vehicle replacement and other major expenses and every cut put burden on another budget year.

After much debate regarding departmental cuts and hearing from the various department heads, at the request of the Mayor, the Committee found seven votes to pass a reworked version of Seals’ earlier motion. Zoning was reduced by ½ a clerical position ( $21,089), Building Inspector reduced by ½ a clerical position( $18,567), Environmental allocation for office staff of Director @ $35,000 base salary and one full time clerical @ $24,000 base salary for cuts of ( $66,633), Information technology removal of one part time position ( $17,657), Providing one additional position for 911 instead of two ( $49,793)

removing uncontrolled expenses from General Sessions Court ( $3,500), Removing travel and $1600 in communication from Health Department ( $2000), Sheriff’s Department two vehicles and $17,600 in pay raises ( $117,600), EMS new vehicles removed but leaving $65,000 for upgrades ( $175,000), Libraries ( $2,356), for total department cuts of $474,196. And use of hospital lease payment $146,400 and hospital reserve fund $65,625. The motion was Approved 7-3 with Turner, Blevins and Gaut voting No.

The Committee also approved a motion, 8-2 with Turner and Seal voting No, that charged the Director of Finance with determining what departments could take a 3% cut and bringing that back for the next meeting. Tucker offered the Motion and Beeler 2nd it.

In other action the Committee Approved with a Motion from Tucker and 2nd from Turner, the School Department at the maintenance of effort level of $16,201,000 ( last year’s figure) (8-2). The Motion included an amendment from Scarlett to cap sales tax revenue for the Department of Education at the current rate and excess comes back to the County for allocation. Tucker 2nd the amendment and it Passed 8-2 with Turner and Musick voting No.

The Budget Committee will meet on May 26, 2015 in the lowest floor of the Jefferson County Health Department to continue work on the fiscal year 2015-2016 budget.

Source: K. Depew, News Director