Commissioner calls for cuts to public safety, other services, to avoid tax hike

Wilburn’s proposal come weeks after he recommended that the budget committee add an additional one-half mill to the ad valorem tax rate in order to raise about $700,000 for roads and other uses. He said Tuesday night that he voted against the 1.92-mill tax hike recommended by the budget committee because the proposed budget did not have the extra road funding in it.

But Friday morning he wrote that he has “rethought” his ideas about the budget.

“At one time, I was ready to increase the tax on the Citizens of Barrow County to pay for our budget,” he stated. “After talking with numerous people over the county (both young and old) I feel most do not want their taxes raised. Some are having a hard time paying their taxes now.”

Saying his proposal might not be the answer, Wilburn said he offered it as a “talking point on how to balance the budget without increasing taxes.”

He added: “It is, in my opinion, the time to start making the hard decisions. That is what we get the “Big Bucks For”.

SMITH RESPONDS

Two hours after Wilburn’s proposal, Sheriff Jud Smith responded with his own statement.

“I am very disappointed that we have done what the committee has asked us to do, and that is stay with the same budget for the current year. We have done that and the only thing that has increased is retirement and fuel in the amount of $100,000, and the fuel increase was Larry Joe’s idea…”

Smith indicated he believes Wilburn is operating on behalf of Chairman Danny Yearwood, who for the past three years has called for significant cuts to public safety spending.

“I believe after talking to a few commissioners (who voted against the budget committee’s budget) they believe that they have… enabled Danny to get his way now over what most would say is a few dollars in the grand scheme of things,” Smith said.

He said he does not want taxes raised either, but called on public officials and their constituents to look at the issue logically.

“If you want to continue to receive the services you have now – and short-staffed as our government is, the services are minimal now – are you willing to pay an average of $55.00 for an entire year which is roughly a little over a dollar a (week) to keep what you have now?” Smith wrote.

The sheriff said the public should understand that no department manager or elected official requested unneeded extras in the new budget.

“Everything is this budget is necessity to sustain what we have across the board and no one understands,” he said.

Smith said the BOC should have “made the public aware that if it were not for the debt service and property values going down, there would be no increase in the mill rate.”
He asked: “So why put it on the backs of the employees which will have severe consequences in the end to every citizen especially if this outrageous plan is put into motion.”

The sheriff in an interview Friday afternoon said the stakes are high.

“The decisions they make Monday are going to affect every citizen and every visitor of Barrow County in the future. I hope the commissioners realize what’s at stake.”

Commissioner Steve Worley, who has led all three budget processes during the current board’s term, issued his response to Wilburn at 11:22 a.m.

He asked, “Do you have any comments on where to make these cuts in all these departments?”

Worley pointed out that while several cost-cutting suggestions already had been made during the committee’s work on the budget, “the people suggesting these ideas had no cost savings put with them and no follow up.”

Worley added: “The one thing I stated I will vote no on is: furlough days, cutting salaries, (and) raising insurance cost to the employees in the 2012 budget.”