Tax hike tempting way out for Greene

Greene County has spent its way into a corner that it will be tempted to tax its way out of.
Because of budget projections that can most charitably be called hopeful and a general lack of oversight from elected officials, the county finds itself on thin ice with the state and without a workable spending plan six months into the fiscal year.
The board of commissioners is to meet Monday night to begin the reclamation work, but the cleanup won’t be accomplished in a few months or maybe even a few years. And if commissioners give in to temptation, we predict the county will be on thin ice with taxpayers, too.
The budget problem that has drawn the attention of the state’s Local Government Commission is pretty basic: revenues for the budget year that ended June 30, 2012, fell woefully short and outstripped expenses, forcing the county to dip into its fund balance — essentially its savings account — to plug a $1.6 million gap. The raid on the savings account left the county with precious little money in reserve, far less than the state says a county Greene’s size should have.
Building up that fund balance is the ultimate goal in rewriting the current annual budget and in writing the next one and probably the next one; but that can be only accomplished by tinkering with the details to increase revenue and reduce expenses. In preliminary discussions, commissioners have focused on expenses, which with small counties, like small businesses, mean personnel. A hiring freeze, a review of vacant positions and a freeze on travel have all been suggested. They should all be implemented and other strategies for saving money identified.
Raising revenue is complicated by the fact that adjusting those hopeful projections will initially cost the county. Revenue for lodging federal inmates in the new county jail is realistically a zero, owing to the fact no deal has been reached with federal agencies and a spate of jail construction has left several counties in the area with empty cells. The county will pick up another $43,500 from a quarter-cent sales tax increase, not the $80,000 originally projected.
Before the referendum in November, the sales tax was framed for voters as a more equitable alternative to a property tax increase. Considering the county’s current budget mess, it appears that without the steady resolve of commissioners many Greene residents will end up suffering both in the fiscal year that begins July 1.
The tax rate set in the budget that kicks in then will be paired with generally higher property values, the result of a revaluation that took effect last week. A slightly lower tax rate would still mean an effective tax increase because of those higher values. When the time comes, commissioners should look hard at a revenue-neutral tax rate; in the coming months, they should plan for the cost reductions that will help make that possible.
The revised budget that commissioners will begin with Monday night factors in some revenue from grants and state and federal sources that wasn’t in the original, but it also includes some $220,000 in reduced jail revenue and other cuts. It would add about $218,000 to the fund balance. At that rate, Greene County would spend five years replacing the savings lost in one year. That’s the scope of the problem.