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Commissioners can’t hold the line on taxes any longer, propose 2 mill tax increase

The Warren County Commissioners have released a proposed budget that includes a 2 mill tax increase that will generate roughly $1 million.

The proposal was released on Wednesday and is set for action by the commissioners at a meeting on December 28.

This marks just the county’s third tax increase in 12 years — 1.5 mills in 2004 and .75 mills in 2013. One mill generates roughly $490,000 in revenue.

It equates to an additional $36 in taxes on the average property.

Such extended periods of no increases have “put us at a disadvantage,” Commissioner Cindy Morrison said, explaining that infrastructure items – the courthouse and things such as its’ boiler and roof – were neglected because previous boards used capital budget funding to help their general fund.

“We made every cut we could potentially make,” she said. “It was painful.”

The commissioners started the process of developing the budget with a $1.2 million deficit on a budget with expenditures of $15 million projected in 2017.

“I went into the budget season with one goal,” Commissioner Ben Kafferlin said, to “stop kicking the can down the road… The choice was lay people off, cut services, or raise taxes. My position is if we can raise taxes now and implement some process changes and fix some of the systemic issues with our infrastructure, hopefully in a year or two we can lower (taxes) back down.

“We need to make investments now to save money in the future,” he said.

Commissioner Jeff Eggleston explained that as part of the process he researched how other counties handle the millage rate and determined that many increase taxes in a much smaller amount in order to keep up with inflation.

“p1″>”What Warren County has done is take a position where, in the past, it’s been doing everything possible to avoid a tax increase,” he said. That has included personnel and service cuts. “Everything that legally can be cut has been cut,” he said. “We are at a point where we’ve  had several things out of our control come swing at us.”

In a release, the commissioners pointed to drastically increased healthcare ($550,000 and pension costs ($150,000), juvenile court placements ($176,000), $200,000 for the boiler system at the courthouse and the county’s first capital murder case in a decade as factors precipitating the decision.

“All of those things combined created a mountain you can’t climb through cuts,” Eggleston said.

And that’s just what is in front of them now.

Morrison said that the courthouse roof, elevator at the jail as well as an antiquated lock system on the jail doors are big-ticket items coming in the near future. Eggleston cited software systems that are a “patch work” across departments and mostly in “really bad shape,” and Kafferlin cited radio and dispatch systems for the 911 Center as well as the courthouse phone system.

Eggleston said that he would have preferred to avoid a tax increase but speculated that if the commissioners didn’t raise taxes significantly, the decision would have needed to be made in the next year or two.

“If you want to gut the system and prevent a tax increase, it would hollow out what is left of government in Warren County,” he said, “to such an extent that there would be no ability to do anything else.

“I think that we’re trying to be a proactive board when it comes to growing the county and giving the county more opportunities,” he added, indicating that this budget allows the county “to keep some of the most vital personnel and resources intact to move forward and develop some of the bigger picture items.”

“Every department asked for additional funds for many different reasons,” Morrison said. “I would have to say most of those were denied, if not all of them, and we held the line.”

“I’m proud and thankful to our department heads. They came and task for increases and, to a fault, when we went back and said we need to cut, or raise taxes significantly, all of them were asking, ‘How can we help,'” Kafferlin said. “Several came to us with creative ideas on ways to save, many of which we’re implementing.”

Eggleston commended Warren County Jail Warden Jon Collins, who has “done a marvelous job tightening things up in there, mitigating costs.”

The commissioners were able to squeeze $250,000 in savings  from various parts of the budget.

Morrison referenced cuts to overtime while Kafferlin described it as “a thousand little cuts,” including elimination of some county cell phones – including their own – as well as not purchasing water and tarps in case of a natural disaster and instead putting aside a contingency to purchase those items if needed.

Eggleston said that every department contributed to that total, which also included, he explained, things such as supply costs, professional services and fees as well as maintenance costs.

He said it was “very painstakingly done” with the goal to “take all of the air out of the budget.”

Kafferlin described the budget as “realistic” and “tight.”

“The thing I frankly detest about having to raise taxes two full mills is how much it hurts suddenly,” Kafferlin said, as opposed to incremental increases.

“It is difficult asking for more money out of the pockets of the county’s taxpayers when so many living here survive on fixed incomes and struggle with paying bills,” Morrison said. “With that said, I believe we have made the necessary budget cuts and held the line on requests for additional funds from many county departments and others. It was a laborious process with much consideration being given to keeping costs in line with what the taxpayer can afford.”

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