News

Proposed budget keeps tax rate level, trims nonprofits

Chart shows nonprofits' current year appropriation, 2015-16 budget request and county manager's recommendation. [SOURCE: PROPOSED 2015-16 BUDGET]

By Bill Moss, Published: May 16, 2015

Henderson County residents would see the county property tax rate remain the same but would pay higher fire taxes almost everywhere if the Board of Commissioners adopts a budget recommended by County Manager Steve Wyatt.

The $121 million budget made public Friday would keep the tax rate at 51.36 cents per $100 valuation, the same levy the board adopted in 2011, which like this year was a countywide reappraisal year. The proposed new levy is 2.3 cents higher than the revenue neutral rate of 49.1 cents per $100 valuation, based on growth in the overall taxable value of real property, business furnishings and equipment and motor vehicles. That growth amounted to 4.5 percent, according figures that won't be finalized until appeals are settled.

The budget includes $2.27 million worth of new projects the commissioners added during a budget workshop in March. It relies on a fund balance appropriation of $8.2 million, the equivalent of a 6½-cent tax increase if the county did not have the savings to spend. Overall, the budget is $593,000 higher than the current year’s spending, or just one-half percent higher.
Wyatt took a major whack at nonprofit budget requests. He recommended a total of $449,940 for nonprofits, $286,000 less than their total request of $736,424. Total requests were up 35 percent over the amount the county gave nonprofits last year.
Nonprofits' requests “have grown to a record level,” Wyatt said, adding that commissioners would need to evaluate the county’s role in filling them. “There is no argument that the agencies improve the quality of life in our community,” he added, “but what obligation does the taxpayer have in funding them?”

That pressure comes as the county faces growing demands for services that the public demands, Wyatt said. A chart shows the increased demand for services the county funds. Environmental health inspections are up 17 percent over four years, health clients up 10 percent over one year, EMS calls up 18 percent over four years, building inspections up 6 percent over four years, sheriff's calls up 6 percent over two years, youth soccer participation up 11 percent over two years and Medicaid procedures up 63 percent over two years.

The draft budget does not follow through on the threat by Commissioner Grady Hawkins to defund the Land of Sky Regional Council and the French Broad Metropolitan Planning Organization, regional agencies that plan aging services, evaluate and prioritize highway projects, and manage public transit and other federally funded programs. Wyatt's budget includes 100 percent of the requests — $38,426 for Land of Sky and $20,000 for the MPO.

Wyatt cut requests of four nonprofits by 25 percent and cut the Flat Rock Playhouse by 62 percent. The professional theater received $100,000 in FY 2015 and asked for $50,000 this year; Wyatt recommends $37,500.

School funding is an open question. Wyatt said the county had not received the School Board funding request when it printed the budget. The School Board has asked for $25.8 million — a $2.3 million increase over the current year’s appropriation. Wyatt’s budget shows the schools at its current funding level of $23.5 million. “Major investments in school operational funding will likely require a tax increase or offsetting budget reductions,” he said in a budget message to the board.
While the county has seen its cash reserves improve by an average of $1 million a year in the past five years through lower operating costs, restructuring and higher than projected tax collections, Wyatt cautioned against an overreliance on the fund balance. “Preserving the county credit rating, while invisible to most, is a very important objective,” he said.
After reviews of the volunteer fire departments’ budgets, the county Fire and Rescue Advisory Committee recommended tax increases proposed by the departments. All but Gerton asked for a fire tax increase. The departments’ current rate and new requests were:
• Bat Cave, up 2 cents, to 12 cents per $100 valuation.
• Blue Ridge, 2½ cents, 12 cents.
• Dana, 2 cents, 13 cents.
• Edneyville, 1 cent, 10½ cents.
• Etowah-Horse Shoe, 1 cent, 10½ cents.
• Fletcher, 1½ cents, 11½ cents.
• Gerton, no change, 12½ cents.
• Green River, 1 cent, 8 cents.
• Mills River, 1½ cents, 9 cents.
• Mountain Home, 1½ cents, 12 cents.
• Saluda, 1½ cents, 10 cents.
• Valley Hill, 1 cent, 9½ cents.
• Valley Hill II, 1 cent, 9½ cents.

Among the major capital expenditures are replacing two ambulances and adding one, at a cost of $480,000; a new slope mower for the solid waste department and a generator for the scale house at the landfill.

Among the personnel additions are a fulltime attorney for the sheriff’s department, which would be a transfer from the county attorney’s office; six state and federal funded positions at the Social Services department; a public health nurse and a school nurse at the Health Department; an inspector at the Environmental Health Department; a new position in information technology; four paramedics to add one new crew for emergency response; one new building inspector; a Grove Street courthouse security deputy; and a property appraiser in the tax assessor’s office. A fulltime Smart Start position would be converted to part-time, a savings of $30,000.

Wyatt put no money in the budget for replacement of voting machines; the state enacted a law requiring new paper-ballot machines but legislators are debating the deadline for requiring them. Register of Deeds Lee King got additional money to pay overtime to scan paper records in his project to convert them to digital and got $135,000 for phase 1 of the digitization project.
Debt service of $4.1 million, up 9.6 percent, includes the first year of the financing of the $32 million health sciences building for Wingate, BRCC and Pardee Hospital. The annual debt payment is $508,759. Wyatt recommended no new capital funding for parks and included no new money for renovation of the Grove Street courthouse, although the county still has $850,000 available from an appropriation made two years ago that remains upspent.

The Board of Commissioners could draw money from the county's fund balance or use the $3.4 million the county received from the sale of the Bent Creek property.

The county’s total investment in economic development includes $336,000 for the Partnership for Economic Development plus $843,000 in economic development incentives in the form of property tax refunds, including $170,000 for Continental Teves, $261,000 for Raumedic, a medical supply plant locating in Mills River, and $268,000 for Sierra Nevada.