Members of the Lenoir County Board of Commissioners looked at a property tax increase and other options to cover a $1.9 million debt service at their third budget workshop on Monday afternoon.
Commissioners also considered possible cuts from various departments.
County Manager Mike Jarman said he would have a draft budget put together by the end of the week and the board would have to adopt the budget at the June 17 meeting or call a special meeting. The commissioners agreed to hold another workshop before adopting the budget.
Commissioner Linda Rouse Sutton said the board needs to “get real.” Commissioner J. Mac Daughety said there are areas where they hadn’t gotten real. Jarman urged the board to come to a determination quickly.
“I’m going to encourage you, if you feel like you need to get real somewhere,” Jarman said, “we’re really getting short on time. Today would be a really good day to get there.”
Daughety had earlier sent Jarman an email with suggestions on making budget cuts, which the board discussed one by one.
“We should cut spending rather than increase taxes on citizens,” Daughety wrote at the top of the email.
Jarman expressed some opposition to some of Daughety’s suggestions. Instead, he proposed a 3.5 percent property tax increase.
Raising the tax — currently at .80 cents per $100 of value — 3.5 cents will increase a citizen’s tax bill by $35 on $100,000 of value, Jarman said. A qualifying senior citizen would receive a bill with a $17.50 increase on a $100,000 of value, he said.
To qualify, a senior must make less than $26,100.
“If we make the recommended changes in this email that we’re going to go over,” Jarman said, “it will cost the Lenoir County tax employee with 13 years of experience who earns $28,000 a year $6,220.”
Daughety asked Jarman how he came up with the figure.
Jarman said closing the tax office on Wednesdays would reduce the salary by 20 percent, taking away the Christmas bonus would be a $200 decrease and longevity pay would be reduced on an employee working for the county 13 years.
“Well, I personally would not be in favor of anything that’s going to cut our county employees at all,” Commissioner Reuben Davis said.
Jarman said he is OK on cutting services, and employee benefits are a plus, but salaries are already 10 percent below the market rate.
One suggestion is to close all the jails except the new jail, and eliminate the need for extra jailers hired last year — with a savings estimated by the Sheriff’s Department as $750,000 to $1 million.
Jarman said he had already shown a presentation showing that the measure would not save money but would instead cost taxpayer money.
Other suggestions include postponing an additional soccer field, looking at cutting the county portion of the health department and social services, and closing some departments on Wednesdays.
Daughety said every year he has suggested taking measures to avoid getting to the point of dire straits, and every year the debt isn’t averaged in for the long term. Last year, the board was facing a $2.25 million shortfall for this year.
“I really thought that at the very least,” Daughety said, “that at a very minimum, we wouldn’t have any increase in the budget from last year. And that, hopefully, we would have done what I had hoped we had done the last few years, and that is to reduce this budget somehow, somewhat, so that we don’t have to go raise property taxes on the citizens.”
Daughety said Lenoir already has one of the highest property taxes around the area, and has a large number of senior citizens. Raising the taxes could cause people to move to places like Greenville or New Bern, he said.
Sutton said she recalled two items Daughety had brought to the board that would equate to expenses that were “not high on the priority list.”
“It’s good to say what you’re saying,” she said, “but you’ve got to practice what you preach.”
Margaret Fisher can be reached at 252-559-1082 or Margaret.Fisher@Kinston.com. Follow her on Twitter @MargaretFishr.