Politics

County budget: No new taxes (and no tax rollback)

By Bill Moss, Published: June 5, 2017

The Henderson County Board of Commissioners on Monday adopted a $136.5 million budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1, keeping the tax rate at the current rate of 56.5 cents per $100 valuation.

The commissioners were mostly in agreement on the spending plan. They uanimously added two budget request that had been omitted in the county manager's recommended outline — $250,000 for a four-officer unit for out-of-county transports of inmates to mental hospitals, state prisons and to out-of-state jurisdictions that have won extradition orders.

Commissioner Bill Lapsley an effort for a fourth time to force a property tax rollback, based on his argument that the county's fund balance is more than adequate to meet any emergency costs or unexpected expense. Money the county has moved from the reserve fund into the general budget every July 1 turns out to be unnecessary, he said.

“That is a paper exercise," he said. "When we get the actual audited number we don’t need that number. It’s only been used once in the last five budget cycles."

Lasrt year Lapsley and Commissioner Grady Hawkins voted no on a budget that raised the tax rate by 5 cents per $100 valuation. This time, Hawkins parted ways with Lapsley on the tax rollback but pushed through a proposal to set aside $2 million for future debt service, which peaks at $11 million in 2021 when the county is paying off $190 million worth of new construction costs.

Commissioners adopted the budget after a number of residents spoke during a public hearing to oppose a $20 million sheriff's office law enforcement training center at Blue Ridge Community College. That project is on hold while Sheriff Charlie McDonald and the county's architect of record work on ways to trim costs.

The budget:

• Funds the county's 2017-18 debt service at $16.6 million. Outstanding debt is from the Innovative High School, now under instruction at BRCC; refinanced bond issues from 2010, 2012 and 2013, the 2010 Apple Valley-NHHS renovations, 2008 Hillandale and Mills River elementary school construction projects, the jail, ambulances and the health sciences center.

• Keeps the tax rate at 56½ cents, fifth lowest rate among 27 medium- to large-sized counties in North Carolina.
• Fully funds requests made by BRCC and public schools administrators. The county allocation for public schools is $26.9 million for operating costs, plus $1 million for repairing and preserving the Stillwell building plus school construction debt service of $36 million — overall a 6.3 percent increase. The BRCC allocation of $5.7 million is up 5.5 percent from the current year.
• Is based on a property tax base of $13.5 billion, the highest it’s been since 2009.