The White County Budget Committee will now weigh options to find a middle ground on the county’s budget after the full commission rejected the budget for a second time.
Budget Committee Chairman Kyle Goff said the committee must figure out what can be cut to get a tax rate low enough to satisfy the full commission. Goff said looking back, he believes the first proposed budget in June was too aggressive.
“I think the rest of the commission probably gave us all the warning signs that that was a little too high,” Goff said. “You know, coming from the state certified rate of $1.21 and then jumping $1.57, that would be about a 30 percent tax increase on average to White County citizens.”
Goff said he would like to see a special-called meeting set for sometime next week. Goff said the budget committee cannot require all commissioners to be in attendance, but he is hoping that all commissioners can attend.
“We all have jobs and other responsibilities and duties,” Goff said. “I do think that it’s very hard to hit a target where we all can be present at the same time, but you know, I think we will do the best we can, and we’ll send the calendar out and we’ll see what we can get accomplished.”
Goff said County Executive Denny Wayne Robinson’s discovery of an additional $300,000 in local sales tax revenue is something that can be looked into. Goff said dropping the tax rate from $1.45 to $1.42 was removing three pennies from the general purpose school fund. Goff said he hates to use the word overfunded, but the county has given more to the school system than what the maintenance of effort has required.
“We now have a base rate of $1.42 as opposed to $1.45,” Goff said. “And I think for conservative commissioners that want that property tax impact to be as low as possible for all the citizens of white County. We are fighting for every single penny that we can. So I think that three pennies is crucial, and having a starting rate now of $1.42 when we go back to the drawing board, I think that is going to be very important for us.”
If the county commission is unable to approve a budget by the end of August, the comptroller’s office will take action. Goff said normally the comptroller’s office steps in to help with budgets for counties that are distressed and underfunded. Goff said White County is not in that position.
“The issue right now is not necessarily that we don’t have the funds to operate our local government,” Goff said. “The issue is the county commission is having a very difficult time coming to a collaboration on what items need to be in the budget and a property tax rate that is appropriate. So I don’t really know the process that the state will take because this is gonna be a little different.”
Goff said the county commission has a full commission meeting set for August 18. Goff said he hopes that the county commission can have a budget approved then to avoid the comptroller’s office being involved.