LAURINBURG — The Scotland County Board of Commissioners met for more than five hours on Thursday in an effort to start working toward a spending plan for the 2019-20 fiscal year.
County Manager Kevin Patterson presented a balanced budget to the board and, with it, the tax rate would increase to $1.02. With that, the county would break even.
“We looked at the impacts of revaluations on the tax rate where the revenue neutral would change the tax rate by two cents,” said Patterson. “We talked about exactly what it would mean to the county and to the budget.”
Patterson explained that “revenue neutral” would mean the county would receive the same amount as last year, no more and no less.
“Some housing values went down and some land values went up, but to get where we are (the tax may rise),” said Patterson.
He said they calculated what an average person would see by a one-cent change in the tax rate, but the change in the revenue wouldn’t mean much for a resident.
“It would ultimately mean, on average, households would write the same-size checks each year — but we also try to look at a reference that I provide each year,” said Patterson. “That one-cent on the tax rate means $215,000 in county revenue and it depends on how it’s calculated, but one cent means $10 to an average household per year.”
Patterson will present his proposal again at the next monthly board meeting.
“The commissioners want to see options in reducing the tax rate and that is always a consistent goal of theirs, so I will present options for that as well,” he added.
The public hearing for the proposed tax budget will be held at the next commissioners‘ board meeting, June 3, at the A.B. Gibson Center.
Jael Pembrick can be reached at 910-506-3169 or [email protected].