White County Commissioners rejected the county’s newly proposed budget for a second time Monday night.
The commission amended the proposed $1.45 tax rate to $1.42 after County Executive Denny Wayne Robinson said numbers from the state showed that the county would receive $300,000 more in local sales tax revenue than originally projected. One point of contention amongst the commission was a $4,000 raise for all county employees. Commissioner Becky Golden said that is a slap in the face for emergency personnel.
“You know great $4,000 will be, but you’re also giving $4,000 to people who are sitting in an office, in an air-conditioned office all day doing paperwork,” Golden said. “So, to me, that’s not fair.”
Commissioner T.K. Austin serves on the budget committee and voiced his frustration with the other commissioners.
“We ask these commissioners for input,” Austin said. “Where are you at? What you want? And we get crickets over here. There’s one or two that will speak up and say, but then for the most part, we get absolutely no input whatsoever from the commissioners.”
Commission Chairman Derrick Hutchings said the commission is up against the clock to get a budget passed.
“We are at a hard August deadline now,” Hutchings said. “If we can’t pass something in August, then the comptrollers is gonna come in and pass it.”
Commissioner Roger Mason said he left the previous budget meeting on the understanding that at least eight or nine commissioners agreed with the budget. After the budget was rejected, Mason said it doesn’t make sense to not provide input and then wait to kill a proposal at full commission. Mason said he was at a loss as to what the county commission wants.
Mason said the commission wants better raises for emergency personnel, but won’t pass a budget that will allow the county to do so. Mason said the biggest impact on the tax levy is payroll.
“That’s the same in any business,” Mason said. “Your people costs are your biggest overhead. That’s our biggest cost, and that’s our biggest opportunity to impact that property tax levy. So I’ve heard people saying we need to pay our EMS guys, we need to pay our sheriff department guys. We can’t do that without funding it.”
Commissioner Chris Brewington said the budget committee is not listening to the emergency responders who are voicing their opinion. Hutchings questioned Brewington, as he believed Brewington had not provided very much input on the budget. Brewington responded with his thoughts on the budget.
“I’m just telling you, like I said, the Parks and Rec and EMA director, all that stuff right there needs to be taken out of there, and pass a budget so they can get some more benefits out of it instead of taking more money out of their pockets,” Brewington said.
Brewington said the commission is not on the same page.
“Things just don’t add up,” Brewington said. “It’s too much of this buddy-buddy situation, or I’ll scratch your back, you scratch my back. Man, everybody does the right thing, and it’s over with and done with, but no, we can’t do it. We are too divided, us 14 are too divided, and at this point, right here, no, we are not gonna pass a budget right there.”
Brewington suggested the commission let the comptroller do the budget since the commission has nothing to hide. Commissioner Robert McCormick said letting the comptroller’s office pass the budget would be a big mistake.
“You know what they are gonna do first, they are gonna cut volunteer fire departments, non-profits are gonna be the first thing they cut,” McCormick said. “They are gonna kill it for everybody else.”