Budget Prompts Concerns

Sunday, May 30, 2010

Second thoughts about the proposed 2010-2011 budget emerged Thursday evening during a work session of the Moore County Board of Commissioners.

The board took no action to change the budget recommended by County Manager Cary McSwain but did discuss several areas of concern.

Commissioner Nick Picerno raised questions about personnel reductions, cuts in the budget for the Sheriff's Office and a proposal to reduce the early tax payment discount from 2 percent to 1 percent. He also pointed out that budgets for both the schools and the college still contain longevity pay while the county has changed its longevity policy to a more modest level.

"I'm concerned about changing something that's been working so well," Picerno said about the proposal to cut in half the early payment discount.

Picerno said it was not the concept of reducing the number of positions that bothers him but he doesn't like the way it was carried out.

"The process really upsets me, the way we handled it," he said, adding that he thinks the board should reinstate those four positions.

As for cuts in the sheriff's budget, Picerno said that with crime and drug abuse on the rise, now is not the time to "take deputies off the road" and put them in the -courthouse to fill in for part-time bailiffs handling mandated services for the courts.

Earlier in the meeting, Tax Administrator Wayne Vest told the board that in a typical year, the county collects about 55 percent of the property tax levy by the end of August, the final date on which the discount applies.

The collection usually totals more than $20 million.

Of that total, early payments reap an estimated $550,000 saving for taxpaying early birds. If the discount were cut to 1 percent, the loss to county coffers would be reduced to about $225,000.

The discount encourages taxpayers to submit payments early in the new fiscal year, a factor that provides a boost to the county treasury at a time when revenue is scarce. The county won't enjoy another heavy inflow until December.

But the $225,000 saving if the discount were halved is attractive when budget makers are trying to save every penny and are making dire cuts in all areas of the budget.

Picerno had a different perspective and pointed out that cutting the discount would equal a tax rate increase for early taxpayers. He also expressed concern that the reduction would have a negative effect on mortgages because a high proportion of the early payments comes from mortgage companies, which will hike payments due from their clients.

Commissioner Cindy Morgan agreed with Picerno on the personnel reduction issue.

"The last thing we should do is balance the budget by cutting people," Morgan said.

Commissioner Larry Caddell questioned the wisdom of a proposal to withhold payment of $9,000 in annual dues to the School of Government, at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, to which the county often turns for advice and interpretation of legal issues.

"We probably get our money's worth in legal services with the School of Government," Caddell said.

McSwain had suggested restoration of the dues to the budget and said the addition of the $9,000 could be accomplished without changing the budget figures.

Vest reported one other source of reduced revenue for the new budget year.

Because of the recession, people are keeping their old cars longer and not buying new ones, resulting in a reduction in overall vehicle evaluation, thus reducing the amount from $716 million last year to $680 million.

The $84.9 million general fund budget prepared by McSwain reflects a decrease of almost 5 percent. It retains the existing tax rate of 46.5 cents per $100 property valuation. It would reduce the budget requests by the public schools and Sandhills Community College by 3 percent each, although the school allocation includes an increase over the previous year's allocation. It contains no raises for county employees.

The commissioners plan to adopt the new budget at their June 7 meeting.

Contact Florernce Gilkeson by e-mail at florence@thepilot.com.

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FaithinUSA 2 years, 12 months ago

I commend Commissioner Nick Picerno...its time we had some common sense views in Carthage.

FaithinUSA 2 years, 11 months ago

if the county wants to save money???? They can cut their fleet of vehicles by at least 50 %. There are at least one car or pick up truck for each employee and a lot of them drive them home ... I know I worked many years at the county and we never understood why certain employees drove a vehicle home . I'm not talking about law enforcement or emergency services but regular employees AND why does almost all employees need a county financed cell phone? What happened to radios?? Don't tell me cell phones are cheaper. There are a lot of areas that can be cut. I learned a long time ago about budgets..... You have to keep increasing it every year OR else you will loose your money to another department and never get it back. Its the same way at Fort Bragg if you ask for 5000 rounds of small arms and 2 cases of grenades, 200 mortar rounds, by gosh you better use it because if you return any you will get less the next time. The system has no provision for conserving , you are actually penalized for being a good steward of resources . Just look at the education system...every year we throw more and more money at it and each year the product (our youth) is worse off. Ever try to get change at a fast food store when the power goes out? True story....my buddy goes to Mcdonalds his bill is 4.95 he hands the cashier a 5.00 bill the power goes out the young lady doesn't know how much change to give him. He tells her a nickle will be close enough, BUT she could text the _ell out of you. So I guess were teaching kids how to text maybe they can find a good texting job one day...don't even get me started about spelling.

CSmithson 2 years, 11 months ago

If the County Commissioners are going to do so much worrying about the department cuts they are forced to make, I hope they look back to last year when they made made an ill-timed tax cut. The forecasts were grim last year too and it has just gotten worse.

Even though as joecommon mentioned, a penny or two on the tax rate costs the average resident a buck or two a month, the Commissioners had to look "good" by cutting taxes. Now, with revenues even worse and the quality of services heading south, these foolish "I"ll never raise taxes and always lower them" type campaign promises have them painted into a corner.

I don't know the Moore County budget well enough to know how much is "enough" and how much is "too much," but it would be nice to have a Commission with vision- one that looks more than one year ahead and one that keeps our taxes as low as possible while still ensuring the best quality of services.

I have some predictions. A hefty tax increase for the 2011-2012 County budget will be unavoidable. There will probably be a revaluation at the same time. Just like last time, the County will fold a tax increase into the reval. 2011 is not a Commissioner election year. Interesting timing, huh? Cut taxes when you need to look good and make up the difference and then some during off years...

FaithinUSA 2 years, 11 months ago

its funny...why do people move to the sandhills? Because the low taxes and the quality of life...WELL I see it changing very quickly over the next few years. Fifteen years ago I heard (Yankees) of which I am one, saying to realtors this house is so cheap...you know what this would cost me up north 2 or 3 times as much and now the price has equalized. Well the home prices steadily went up, and as they went up so did the taxes, due to the fact of higher accessed value equals higher taxes payed. So in reality the taxes in Moore county have steadily gone up . Just because the rate has stayed down doesn't mean the people aren't taking a hit . Is the revaluation CSSmithson speaks of going to be a lower revaluation since supposedly property values have declined nationwide....I doubt it.

SoPines4ever 2 years, 11 months ago

I doubt the re-evaluation will result in lower tax values. As voiced by others, the County should provide top quality services to its population and tax payers. In order to do that, there must be an increase in the tax rate. If the re-evaluation results in lower tax values, then there will have to be a bigger tax rate increase to collect the same amount of funds, something that would definitely look bad on the Commissioners. They would be wise to increase the tax rate this year, and again next year, in order to provide the quality of service that the population and tax payers deserve.

Cary McSwain needs to be the first cut made. Replace him with someone with vision, someone that cares about all citizens of Moore County, not just the majority of the County Commissioners.

FaithinUSA 2 years, 11 months ago

3 or 4 years from now we will be complaining about the tax rate hike....seems your damned if you do,damned if you don't. OK how much is everyone willing to pay in property tax this year to get the county out of this mess?Let see if we take the county budget and divide it buy the number of property owners ...that should be a fair way of doing it. What do you think ?

None 2 years, 11 months ago

"McSwain had suggested restoration of the dues to the budget and said the addition of the $9,000 could be accomplished without changing the budget figures." WHAT-the-*ell?

Creative accounting results in more and more tax money going to the school system and SCC. That statement can be equated with the $160,000.00 that misteriously appeared when Dr. John and David Reese wanted a University police force. Now the 4.2 million is covered - up with slush fund money. Spend it down so we can ask for more next year. A budget line item adjustment. The school bugets really don't pass the smell test. The school police have legislation to increase their jurisdiction and policing authority and the Sheriff's Department maintains it's positions. Bigger is not always better - but more expensive.