By Jennifer Jacob Brown / jbrown@themeridianstar.com
The Meridian Star
MERIDIAN —
Any time there's a tax increase, the public is going to protest it, and that's exactly what happened at a public hearing on Lauderdale County's proposed budget Tuesday evening.
The county plans to raise the property tax rate for FY2011 by 1.87 mills county-wide, and 3.95 mills inside the city limits. The proposed increase follows a millage decrease of 2.41 mills county-wide and 3.78 mills inside the city during FY2010.
After hearing a budget presentation in which County Administrator Joe McCraney explained the tax increase and the reasons behind it, several of about 40 citizens who came to the hearing came before the board of supervisors to protest the increase.
The most well-known of those citizens were Hartley Peavey and his wife, Mary, owners of Peavey Electronics, but most of those who spoke were owners of smaller businesses.
Paul Tarver, a small business owner who is also a founding member of the Meridian Tea Party, said one of the county's primary reasons for raising the millage, a reduction in the assessed value of property in the county, is the very reason he thinks they shouldn't raise it at all.
"A reduction in your (property values) would be just a slight indicator that some of us in the county are having to tighten our belts. We aren't buying new cars," he said, adding, "You won't miss me (if my business closes due to high taxes), but you are going to miss everybody else who, combined, has to close down in this county."
Small business owner Ed Pierce expressed a similar sentiment, saying the economy had already taken enough of a toll on him without adding higher taxes to the mix.
"May of 2008, it was like someone flipped off the light switch. Business went down 40 percent," he told county supervisors. "We had five (employees) then. Now it's just me and my wife. . . You are sitting in a place of responsibility, and the easy way out is to raise taxes."
County resident Bill Sharp said the county hasn't done enough to plan for tough economic times like the ones we're in today.
"I know that this proposed budget has been decreased, but what about the two budgets before that?" he said. "This county is run on a flight on the seat of your pants method. When bad things happen, that's when they try to fix it."
Peavey said he expects to be especially hard hit by the increase because of his vast amounts of property.
"I had 31 pieces of property at last count in Lauderdale County, so when you folks have a tax increase on your mobile homes or your house or whatever, it's not a big deal, but to us, it's a big deal," he said. "Peavey is trying to stay in Meridian. We're trying to keep jobs. We've bought companies. . . brought those companies to Meridian. We have not had to lay off . . . But in order to keep those jobs we have to be competitive."
McCraney said the county's overall budget, including things like debt service that can't be cut, was cut by around four percent.
Mary Peavey said she felt the county wasn't working hard enough to cut the budget more. That prompted Sheriff Billy Sollie to speak, telling the Peaveys that his department's budget had been cut by nearly 20 percent over the last three years. Supervisors said other departments have been severely cut as well.
"We've had five homicides this year," said Sollie. "It takes money to investigate these types of crimes, and the citizens deserve the best they can afford."
The proposed FY2011 budget expenditures are projected to be cut by $2.1 million, from $46.7 million in FY2010 to $44.6 million in FY2011. Property tax revenues are projected to be down by about half a million dollars.
Supervisors said they were doing all they could to keep taxes down, but that the county's financial situation made it impossible to keep the FY2010 tax cuts. They also said it could have been much worse.
"When (Joe McCraney recently took on the job of county administrator) it looked like we'd have to increase by 7 to 10 mills, and Joe has got it down to 1.86," said District 1 Supervisor Hank Florey.
Florey, who voted for the FY2010 tax cuts, said he believed it was a wrong decision, but that it was done for the right reasons.
"Yes, that was a mistake," he said. "We should not have lowered last year. We did it to try and help the people."
District 2 Supervisor Craig Hitt reminded the public that he had been against the FY2010 tax cuts from the beginning, and recommended that the county further cut spending by instituting a hiring freeze, a suggestion he has made numerous times over the past year, but without the support of a majority of the board.
"Lauderdale County has depleted its working cash fund and is now going to have to borrow money to get through the first quarter of 2011," said Hitt. "I believe we could reduce the overall number of personnel by as much as 10 percent and still function well as a county."
