Lowndes County supervisors voted to reduce county funding to the Columbus-Lowndes Recreation Authority during a specially-called meeting Thursday morning.
During the session in the courthouse where supervisors approved the county budget for fiscal year 2016-17, which begins Oct. 1, they set the county’s contribution to CLRA at $690,000, down $40,000 from this fiscal year.
Lowndes County and the city of Columbus jointly fund CLRA. Board President Harry Sanders said the county is still paying more to CLRA than the city, which approved about $650,000 in funding to the parks in its 2016-17 budget. Sanders said the funding between the two entities should be equal, and the city can beef up its contribution if it wants parks to be fully funded.
“If the parks need the money to operate under, the city can raise their budget by $40,000 to make it equal to us, and the parks and rec. will be made whole,” Sanders said. “I think that’s a logical and fair thing to do.”
The board issued a resolution of intent to split from the inter-local agreement that governs CLRA earlier this month. The agreement requires a year’s notice for an entity to leave.
Supervisors said they plan to set up meetings with the city to discuss the recreational body’s future, but the move has deepened fears that Lowndes County ultimately plans to end the agreement.
District 5 Supervisor Leroy Brooks requested a financial statement from CLRA to see what kind of impact the funding cut might have on the department.
City response
Ward 6 Columbus Councilman Bill Gavin said he had no problem upping the city’s contribution to CLRA for next year. However, he noted since city residents also pay county taxes, a pure 50-50 split in parks would mean city residents would essentially be taxed twice for the same service.
He said he had considered the county’s larger contribution to CLRA to be kind of a “reimbursement” to city residents for double taxing.
“I have no problem stepping up to give money to the parks,” Gavin said. “But if we give $40,000 to make it equal, then all of that would be city tax money. The county, on the other hand, uses taxes collected from both citizens in the city and out in the county for its contribution.”
Gavin added he doesn’t know exactly how a $40,000 drop would specifically affect CLRA next year, but if a majority of the city council voted not to increase parks funding, the organization would have to make do.
“I’m just one councilman,” he said.
Ward 1 Councilman Gene Taylor said the city would have to consider its other financial obligations to know if it can afford increasing CLRA’s funding.
“Yes, we’d like to see more money going into parks and recreation for our young people,” he said. “Can we afford that? That’s one thing we’d have to look at.”
The Dispatch could not reach Mayor Robert Smith or CLRA Executive Director Greg Lewis by press time.
City-county discussions
During the supervisors’ meeting, Brooks and District 4 Supervisor Jeff Smith said they’d like the county to ask the city to meet to determine how to move forward with CLRA.
Brooks said he doesn’t want the matter to linger.
“My simple notion is we contact the mayor’s office and ask them if they want to stay with the parks,” Brooks said. “…If they vote to stay, then let’s try to meet and work through with an understanding that we may not be (staying in CLRA). If they already know they don’t want to as a collective body, just tell us so we can move on.”
Mayor Smith has repeatedly expressed his willingness to meet with the county about CLRA.
Supervisors agreed to send a letter to the city to determine its intent to meet. The letter will ask for a response by the second week in October.
“There’s a lot of conversation out there and the sooner we can get to some sort of decision on what kind of direction we want to go in (the better),” Jeff Smith said.
Budget approved
On Thursday, supervisors also unanimously approved the county’s fiscal year 2016-17 budget and set the year’s millage rate.
The budget includes $41.37 million in total revenue and $43.06 million in total expenditures, showing a $1.7 million deficit. However, County Administrator Ralph Billingsley said the deficit will actually be about $700,000 because the budget includes expenditures for some projects — such as a planned horse park off of Old Highway 82 and Tom Rose Road that’s being funded through state bond money — even though the county may have already received the money for them.
Billingsley said the county will simply draw from its reserves, which will total about $4.84 million after accounting for the budget shortfall, rather than raise taxes. He said the county will begin in 2017-18 collecting new ad valorem taxes from Severstal (currently owned by Steel Dynamics, Inc.) which will help replenish reserves.
The county’s millage rate remained the same as fiscal year 2015-16, when the county approved a budget with a $750,000 deficit, at 86.72 mills. The county remained at 40.01 mills, and the Lowndes County School District millage rate remained unchanged at 46.71 mills.
The budget also includes a $376,000 reduction in county fire service funding, from $562,000 to $186,000. Billingsley said the difference is because the county had three fire stations under construction last year, and those have been completed.
There’s also a $587,000 increase in bonds/notes payable, from $4.22 million in FY 2015-16 to $4.81 million in FY 2016-17. Billingsley said that’s due to the payment on land west of the airport the county purchased using bonds about three years ago. For a two-year period after the county purchased the lands, it only required interest payments.
During that time, Billingsley said, the interest rate dropped, and the county adjusted the repayment period to a 15-year term instead of a 30-year one.
“We had to start paying it back,” he said. “We have bigger payments because we’re going to pay it in half the time.”
Alex Holloway was formerly a reporter with The Dispatch.
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