LAURINBURG – County commissioners say they would love to see Scotland’s tax rate dropped by a cent.
The board was able to pull off a similar rate reduction last year taking the county property tax rate from $1.03 to 1.02 per $100 valuation.
But Scotland County Manager Kevin Patterson told the board during a budget workshop this week that reducing the current rate by another cent may not be feasible.
That one cent should generate about $194,000 annually, enough to help pay for a one percent cost of living increase for employees as well as longevity bonuses for eligible employees with the county for more than five years. The county could also give a six percent pay increase to the 45 sworn law enforcement officers at the sheriff’s office.
“Even with talking about a one percent increase in cost of living and trying to increase law enforcement pay to get it close to being competitive with the county, doing that and keeping the budget flat is difficult,” Patterson said.
Still Commissioners Betty Blue Gholston and Bob Davis discussed with Patterson the possibility of reduction in the tax rate.
“I hope we can,” Davis said. “We tried to do that in last two or three years.”
Davis said one drawback to dropping the tax would be to have something happen that greatly decreased the county’s tax revenue leaving the county no other option but to raise taxes by two or three cents or cut programs.
“I would hate to do that and then have to raise it two or three cent next year,” he said.
Scotland County’s property tax rate is the highest in the state, just ahead of Edgecombe County at 95 cents and Franklin County at 93 cents, according to the NC Association of County Commissioners.
But Davis said comparing tax rates is not an accurate representation of what residents pay because in some counties with lower tax rates, the cost difference is passed on to residents through higher fees.
Commissioner Guy McCook said he would love to drop the tax rate, but cautioned that Scotland is a small county with a small tax base that is still expected to provide the same state mandated services as larger, more affluent counties.
“There is a sentiment that we want to reduce the tax rate like we did last year,” McCook said. “We try to be respectful of the citizens, and we’d like to take the money we get from the reduction in in payments to the school system and apply that to the tax rate.”
The board took no action at Wednesday’s budget workshop. A public hearing on the proposed budget is set for June 12 at the Emergency Operations Center at 7 p.m. at 1403 West Boulevard.
New positions
The proposed $40.3 million budget includes no fee increases.
There are three new positions in the budget plan. The county would add doctor to the staff of the Scotland County Health Department.
“The doctor is expected to be here in July … with that it’s going to create additional opportunities for growth,” Patterson told the board. “Part of that would also be the ability to have a contract with Blue Cross Blue Shield and also give us the ability to create an employee wellness program.”
The department already sees private patients but could not see BCBS patients without a physician on board.
The county also wants to add a communicator position to the two already employed by 911 call center. The new hire will be responsible to technical issues.
“The IT system in that building is more complicated than what we have for the rest of [the county],” Patterson said.
The county’s four largest expenditures go to the school system, Department of Social Services, sheriff’s office/ jail, and the Health Department.
Scotland County Schools is set to receive $12,381,000 from the county a reduction of just over $1 million from last year. The county is currently negotiating with the school board for a further 2.25 percent reduction in what it allocates to the school system.
The sheriff’s office and jail combine to account for just over $5 million of the proposed budget some of that cost is offset by about $300,000 in revenue from civil fees, according to Patterson.
Sheriff’s Ralph Kersey has proposed a program to further reduce the cost to the county for expenditures at the jail.
Under Kersey’s program, non-violent offenders and those in jail for non-support would be allowed out of jail with an ankle monitor and be required to participate in a program that will help them find a job, work toward a GED or or enter some other specialized program.
Kersey believes the program will save the county $1,800 a month per inmate.
“The ankle monitors are, I think, $3.50 a piece per day, which is less that what we pay for food. We pay over $10 a day per person for food, so we’d make it up on lunch,” Patterson told the board during his presentation.
DSS receives $7.7 million from the county, but offsets that amount with $5 million in revenue paid by the state and federal governments.
The Health Department accounts for $2.7 million of the budget, but brings in around $1 million in revenue in reimbursements from Medicaid and other state and federal programs.
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