BOC hikes taxes 1 mill

In the next few days, several Barrow County employees will lose their jobs in the county government’s second layoff in two years.

The exact number of employees affected by the approved cuts in the FY2011 budget is not clear.

In adopting the spending plan Tuesday night, the Barrow County Board of Commissioners eliminated about $331,000 in funding for seven positions.

Only five current employees will be affected by the loss of those positions, because workers in two of the eliminated jobs already have resigned or announced plans to retire.

However, on top of the announced cuts, the adopted budget eliminates $42,000 in funding for the office of Tax Commissioner Melinda Williams.

An audibly shaken Williams said upon hearing the news Wednesday morning that the surprise cut apparently was in response to her recent refusal to give up one of the eight positions in her office.

Twice last week, commission chairman Danny Yearwood pressed her to give up one of the eight positions in her department, Williams said. “I told him I was not going to do it. I don’t know how they expect me to operate without another person. (Taxpayers) already are lined up every day and the phones ring off the hook.”

The most recently hired employee in her office began working for the county six years ago and, despite having her salary cut twice last year, continues to be one of her hardest-working employees, she said.

Williams said she received no advance notice of the last-minute budget cut. She did not attend the board’s 7 p.m. meeting, which was called solely to adopt the new budget.

In announcing the cut, CFO Rose Kisaalita during her budget presentation did not explain it.

Wednesday morning Kisaalita said the cut was not taken from a particular line item and that Williams “will have to decide this one.”

Because Williams is a constitutional officer, the BOC appropriates funding but cannot dictate how it is spent.

Williams said she has another concern about the new budget: Its bare-bones appropriation for supplies. That line item was reduced from $8,000 to $1,000.

Kisaalita responded: “As we have been telling all the departments, she can move money from other lines.”

BUDGET VOTE SPLIT

Due to apparent disagreements over the planned personnel cuts, Tuesday night’s budget vote was split, with commissioners Larry Joe Wilburn and Steve Worley opposed.

Wilburn did not explain his vote, but Worley said after the meeting that he did not agree with the final selection of employees being laid off.

“There’s positions being laid off that are needed,” he said. “In my own conscience I can’t vote to lay off someone knowing that when they go out the door, we have other positions that are not needed and not being done away with.”

Worley said it is his opinion that personal feelings and politics were factors in the selection of some of the positions being eliminated. The FY2011 budget adopted by the board projects $31.4 million in spending and $31.5 million in revenues.

For more on this story, see the September 22 edition of the Barrow Journal or click here to read the full story online when you subscribe to our new e-edition.