New debt service payments and employee raises will likely result in Lowndes County dipping into its reserve fund next fiscal year to make up for an estimated $550,000 deficit.
Supervisors will hold a public hearing Monday at 9:30 a.m. at the Lowndes County Courthouse on the proposed 2014-15 budget. A millage increase is not proposed, meaning the current county millage rate of 38.01 will hold and residents will not see an increase in property taxes unless the assessed value of their properties have increased.
The budget that will be presented to supervisors projects $39,149,802 in revenues, $16,625,706 of which is obtained through ad valorem tax levies.
The county will begin fulfilling a yearly debt service payment to the Rural Development Authority after borrowing $13 million from the agency and spending it over two years to acquire land west of the Golden Triangle Regional Airport, Lowndes County Administrator Ralph Billingsley said. This was done to have more land available at the Golden Triangle Regional Industrial and Aerospace Park for industrial prospects. Billingsley said next year’s payment will be $481,000.
“That’s the first debt service payment we’ve had since we bought that land,” Billingsley said.
On top of that, Billingsley will propose that supervisors approve raises for all non-probationary county employees, a $380,000 added cost. Billingsley said the county has not extended pay increases to its 300 employees since 2011 and that now was the time to do so despite the probability of having to use reserve funds.
“We like to compensate them at least a raise every three years,” Billingsley said. “We’d like to do it more often than that, but sometimes we can’t.”
Billingsley said the county has more than $2 million in its reserve fund.
“We have reserves that are plenty sufficient to cover the deficit,” he said.
Looking long-term, some industries that have located in Lowndes County have fee-in-lieu agreements that will end in 2015 and 2016. After that, they have to pay full ad valorem taxes. This will allow for the county to replenish whatever it removes from its reserve fund for the upcoming fiscal year, Billingsley said.
In 2015, the first phase of steel manufacturer Severstal Columbus’ 10-year tax exemption period will end. Wood product manufacturer Weyerhaeuser will pay full property taxes beginning in 2016. Caledonia Gas Storage’s 10-year exemption will also end that year.
A general county mill is expected to be worth $504,000, a $1,000 increase over what it’s been worth this fiscal year.
The new fiscal year begins Oct. 1.
Nathan Gregory covers city and county government for The Dispatch.
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