Commission OKs Budget in Marathon Session

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By Ron Barry
Managing Editor

In a marathon session of nearly three hours Monday night, the Crockett County Commission – on the fourth roll call vote taken during the meeting – narrowly approved a budget for fiscal year 2023 that grants all requests made by every department except the inclusion of funding for school resource officers (SROs).
Yet.
And the “yet” is probably the only reason the Commission didn’t stay even longer after a 5:30 public hearing, a 6:00 Budget Committee meeting to set the final proposal, and then the 7:00 approval meeting which featured encore presentations by Sheriff Troy Klyce and Ambulance Services Director Stephen Sutton.
When it was becoming obvious that the commissioners were stalemated in coming to a final agreement, County Mayor Gary Reasons proposed an idea that eventually pushed enough voters into the “yes” category for approval.
In the 5:30 public hearing, necessary because the County was requesting to exceed the certified tax rate of $2.02 in order to fund key parts of staffing in the Sheriff’s Department, County Jail, and the Ambulance Service – as well as provide raises to courthouse employees – several citizens voiced their concerns that the budget needed to include SROs for the schools.
Everyone who spoke was in favor of funding SROs in the final budget – but it was equally obvious that several commissioners didn’t think their constituents were either able or willing to pay for the 35-cent hike it would have taken to secure SROs.
The first budget proposed – boosting the tax rate to $2.27 to fund all requests except SROs – failed when 11 commissioners voted no, 10 voted yes, and three were absent.
The next proposal did include putting SROs in the budget, pro-rated to six months because officials estimated it would take at least until January 1 to get the proper plans in place and attract the type of officers the Sheriff and school system would desire. Before a vote was taken, Commissioner Jonathan Dodd floated the idea of a designated special county tax on vehicles, saying it was a much fairer way of raising the money than putting all of the burden on landowners through a property tax hike.
His idea gained little traction with other commissioners after Klyce said they had enough trouble getting people to pay the current wheel tax and that he had no means of enforcement for people who didn’t conform, stating it was actually illegal to pull someone over just for having an expired tag. An intensive Internet search could not confirm that statement.
The vote on the second eventual proposal – at a $2.32 tax rate, and funding SROs for six months – failed with 14 no votes and only six voting yes.
Several commissioners then weighed in on the rising costs of everything from gasoline to groceries to construction supplies, feeling their constituents just couldn’t handle this steep of a tax increase. Discussion included potential help from the school system itself or from sales tax collections from the smaller towns where the elementary schools are, but nothing was moving the voting needle.
Reasons then proposed the possibility of initiating a user fee at the County’s four convenience centers for waste disposal, stating the current solid waste fund is entirely borne by the business properties in the county, paid for by sales tax from business locations outside of any of the town areas. Currently, the convenience centers do not charge users for bringing their waste to the sites.
“This type of fee is regularly charged in several other counties,” Reasons said, “and sometimes at very high rates.” His proposal was for an annual $100 assessment for a household.
While he offered that proposal, Klyce then began providing alternatives to hiring five SROs, such as two now (for the high school and middle school) and possibly a third who could float between the three elementary schools. He also said if he could get a full staff of patrol deputies (his department is short-staffed currently), he could routinely send them in and out of schools on occasion.
Commissioner Joe Gibson then moved for another vote, this time to reconsider the original $2.27 rate (without SROs) and to apply usage fees from the convenience centers later when the appropriate mechanisms could be worked out. This vote – with 12 yes votes – failed by one, because commission rules require 13 votes to approve a resolution.
The next proposal – to operate on last year’s budget, but add $100,000 to the Sheriff, Jail, and Ambulance Service budgets, and add two SROs – setting the tax rate at about $2.15 – was eventually withdrawn after presentations by Klyce and Sutton provided various reasons why it simply wasn’t going to be enough for them to be competitive with surrounding counties.
Nearly three hours in at that point, Gibson’s proposal to reconsider was reconsidered again, and after the changing of a vote on an initial abstention, the 13th “yes” vote surfaced.
That results in full funding for everything requested except the SROs, and provides for Reasons and his staff to pursue the best path to initiate user fees at the convenience centers, to be applied to the Solid Waste Fund. Then monies from that fund can be redirected to the funding for SROs, probably in incremental steps. Officers could be hired in stages as the funding increases.
See Ron Barry’s “Reasonings” column on Page 3 for another viewpoint on these proceedings.

Cody Bishop

Cody Bishop

Hi! My name is Cody Bishop and I'm currently working as a Graphic Designer for Magic Valley Publishing, the parent company of the Crockett County Times.

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