No magic yet for county's FY2012 budget

Barrow Journal

RSS Feed

Email Alerts

Twitter

Facebook

No magic yet for county's FY2012 budget

Posted by

Mike Buffington

in Top Stories & Breaking News

Thursday, May 26. 2011

Comments (9)

Barrow County leaders still haven't found a magic solution to the government's looming budget problems. When the county begins its new fiscal year Oct. 1, it will be facing a $5 to $5.7 million deficit, a situation that portends a major tax hike this fall.

The county currently is projecting a $5.7 million funding shortfall mostly due to falling property values that generate the single largest revenue stream – property taxes – and two long-term debt obligations incurred during the previous administration.

The BOC has managed to keep the county afloat during the recession by cutting expenses and using the back-up reserves to cover remaining budget shortfalls an unexpected expenses.

But as the board faces a potential $5.7 million revenue shortfall for FY2012 with “no reserves,” the commissioners are entering uncharted financial territory.

Commissioner Steve Worley, who managed to salvage the past two fiscal year budgets, said this week that he worked with county officials to trim $700,000 from the projected shortfall. But he said he cannot see any easy way out of the remaining $5 million hole.

Though BOC Chairman Danny Yearwood at last week’s budget meeting said a budget committee would be formed, Worley said no committee has been assembled.

“What’s the purpose?” he said. “If we are going to tell the departments how much they are going to get, why are we putting a committee together?”

Until the 2011 Tax Digest is finalized, the BOC can’t make any major decisions, he said.

Chief Appraiser Cecil Highfield has estimated a 10-percent drop in the digest, which is the compilation of all taxable values of property in the county.

However, Highfield a couple of years ago made a similar projection, and the digest dropped that year by only 6 percent.

The spoiler this year is a state requirement that foreclosure sales be included in the digest. Worley said those low-ball sales prices are having a big impact on other property values.

Trackbacks

Trackback specific URI for this entry

No Trackbacks

Comments

Display comments as (Linear | Threaded)

#1 Fortitude on 05/26/11 at 06:47 AM [Reply]

Citizens, its time to stand up to the stupidity of the BOC. They want a ghetto to be built in an already over crowded area, give tax breaks to the builder and then raise our property taxes to make up for the loss. I say each and everyone of us do not pay property taxes until everyone of the BOC steps down, starve the county and make due on our own, the way things used to be without government interferance. Then, once the county is hurting they will understand that the citizens drive the county, not the developers or real estate mongors

#1.1 Land Owner on 06/01/11 at 02:28 AM [Reply]

If you don't pay your property taxes, then, ultimately, your property will be seized and sold on the courthouse steps. Then, half-wit, what will you have accomplished? Hordes of residents of Barrow will NOT join you in your silly "crusade."

#2 they call me the fireman on 05/26/11 at 06:55 PM [Reply]

Albert Einstein, saying: “Unless we are willing to think and ultimately act differently, we will either have the same problems or resort to the same solutions.”

#2.1 Jack Legg on 05/30/11 at 04:05 PM [Reply]

The abswer to the Counties budget problems is not to raise taxes but to lower them. This will give more income to the avaerage citizen and they willl spend it and stimulate the local economy.In addition to this we need impact fees on all new development, and we need to get control of departmental budgets.
We need to go back to a Volunteer Fire Department and move in to a Volunteer Sherrifs Dept.
Small, poor communities do this all over the USA , we can too.
In a few years when things turn around and we start growing again and can afford it , we can go back to a paid Fire Dept. and fully paid Sherrifs dept.

#2.1.1 Really... on 05/31/11 at 09:08 PM [Reply]

Can you name even one other county with a night time population of 72,000 citizens that has a volunteer sheriff's office and a volunteer fire department. No, you can't.

#2.1.2 Anonymous on 06/05/11 at 07:19 AM [Reply]

So who fronts the several hundred thousand or even million dollars to train all these new volunteers. Plus you will need at least twice if not three or four times as many volunteers than we have paid now to account for people being at work or otherwise busy. This is 2,3,4 time the amount of workers comp., Personal protective equipment. It will cost more to start a volunteer department than it will to run the one we have.

#2.1.3 Anonymous on 06/05/11 at 09:19 AM [Reply]

On another blog you said you did not want to ever grow the county. You actually want to go back to a smaller county less people and less outsiders. How do you grow the county if your stated purpose is to shrink the county and get rid of non "natives"?

#3 lol on 05/31/11 at 07:12 PM [Reply]

the problem jack is the 8000 calls a year the fire department runs. its not 1970 anymore...volunteers will not work the call volume is too much and most all volunteers work....

#3.1 Jack Legg on 06/01/11 at 07:48 PM [Reply]

Have you read about the oconee county sherrif , and what he has done for the budget process there? How many of Barrows elected leaders have stepped up to the plate? ........none.Its hard times and you do difficult things in hard times. Get a leg up!

Add Comment

Name
Email
Homepage
In reply to
Comment: E-Mail addresses will not be displayed and will only be used for E-Mail notifications.
To leave a comment you must approve it via e-mail, which will be sent to your address after submission.

To prevent automated Bots from commentspamming, please enter the string you see in the image below in the appropriate input box. Your comment will only be submitted if the strings match. Please ensure that your browser supports and accepts cookies, or your comment cannot be verified correctly.

Enter the string from the spam-prevention image above:
Phone*

What is seven minus six?
: Remember Information? Subscribe to this entry
: Submitted comments will be subject to moderation before being displayed.

This Week's Poll

Community

Barrow Community

No magic yet for county's FY2012 budget

Barrow Journal

No magic yet for county's FY2012 budget

Recent Stories

Recent Comments

This Week's Poll

Sister Sites

Archives

Community

Keyword Tags