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HomeMy WebLinkAbout09-08-2003 Meeting I FINAl'fCE & APPROPRIATIONS AGENDA COMMITTEE ROOM - September.8", 2003 1.$0 P. M. 1. Approve refund to Wiley T. Andrews, Sf. of 200 1 taxes paid in error in the amount of $24.79 on boat account #2042096. 2. Report from the Tax Assessor regarding the changes in the tax digest. (Referred from September 2 Commission meeting) 3. Report from the Administrator/Elected OffIcials regarding actual targeted budget cuts for 2003. (Referred from September 2 Commission meeting) [Adopt Budget Resolutions for the General Fund, Law Enforcement Fund, Fire Protection Fund, Capital Outlay Fund and Urban Services District Fund for budget amendments and the reduction in expenditures for year 2003 to keep the budget in balance] 4. Approve installation of additional street lights in accordance with the previously approved Street Lighting Master Plan at six locations. Installation costs in the amount of $6,710 and annual maintenance and energy (currently $47,020) to be funded from General Fund Street Lighting (Account # 101-04-l6l0/52.131 19 and lOI-04-1610/53.l2310 respectively). I I I FINANCE & APPROPRlA TIONS COMMITTEE COMMITTEE ROOM - September 8, 2003 1:30 P. M. PRESENT: Hons. Bob Young, Mayor; Shepard, Chairman; Hankerson, Co- Chairman; Williams, member; Jim Wall, Attorney; George Kolb, Administrator; Chief Al Gillespie, Fire Chief; E. W. Reece, Tax Assessor; David Persaud, Finance Director; Fred Russell, Deputy Administrator; Tameka Allen, IT Director; Lena Bonner, Clerk of Commission. ABSENT: Hon. Bridges, member. Also Present: Stacey Eidson of the Metro Spirit, Haley Dunbar of the Augusta Focus, Sylvia Cooper of the Augusta Chronicle, George Eskola ofWJBF Television and Hons. Colclough, Mays, Beard and Boyles, Commissioners. 1. Approve refund to Wiley T. Andrews, Sr. of2001 taxes paid in error in the amount of $24.79 on boat account #2042096. Mr. Williams: I so move. Mr. Hankerson: Second. I Motion adopted unanimously. 4. Approve installation of additional street lights in accordance with the previously approved Street Lighting Master Plan at six locations. Installation costs in the amount of$6,710 and annual maintenance and energy (currently $47,020) to be funded from General Fund Street Lighting (Account # 101-04-1610/52.13119 and 101-04-1610/53.12310 respectively). Mr. Williams: I so move. Mr. Hankerson: Second. Motion adopted unanimously. 3. Report from the Administrator/Elected Officials regarding actual targeted budget cuts for 2003. (Referred from September 2 Commission meeting) [Adopt Budget Resolutions for the General Fund, Law Enforcement Fund, Fire Protection Fund, Capital Outlay Fund and Urban Services District Fund for budget amendments and the reduction in expenditures for year 2003 to keep the budget in balance] I The Finance Department recommended the continuation of the Manpower Management Plan until December 31, 2003 to serve as a solution to the budget shortfall in tax revenues for 2003. Mr. Persaud: We will have to look at the fIgures for 2004 because we will be facing some problems there and will have to make some decisions. I Mr. Mays: Ifwe are serious " about dealing with the money side of the situation, we could give staff the strength to say they don't have the power to place items regarding vacancies on the agenda to come before us. While we are trying to get ready for next year in dealing with the budget, we would not allow items for fIlling vacancies to be added on to the agenda unless the ten commissioners unanimously agree to add them on. If we vote to direct the Administrator not to place those on, then we'll have time to deal with the issues on the budget that we need to work on. If we had to deal with an emergency, then that would be up to us to add an item. But if it is just a matter of getting a vacancy fIlled, then that is what has hindered us in the past while we're trying to deal with the budget. If the ten of us agree to add something on, then that's fIne and we'll deal with it. Mr. Chairman: That could only be in binding form passed at the next meeting of the Commission. You're talking about bypassing the traditional route through the committees of the agenda items. Mr. Mays: Obviously the whole commission would have to approve that. People will try to approach us about fIlling vacancies and some may get through. This will be a diffIcult time through the next few months and it would relieve the administration and fInance to allow them to work directly on preparing the numbers for the budget and getting us through the rest of this year. That's just a suggestion. I Mr. Chairman: The rule would have to be passed in the full body. Mr. Mays: Effectively, it would be a freeze for the rest of the year. After further discussion, Mr. Williams: I move that we approve the budget resolutions with the amendment by Mr. Mays that allowed for the circulation of a document that the Commission would have to approve any additions to filling positions that come before the full Commission as opposed to agenda items coming through the committees. Mr. Chairman: I'll second that motion. Motion adopted unanimously. 2. Report from the Tax Assessor regarding the changes in the tax digest. (Referred from September 2 Commission meeting) Mr. Reece: Our old computer system was not Y2K compliant. We got a new system that was not able to produce and we began looking for a system that would allow for the production of a 2000 digest. We did not have enough funding and it was decided I 2 I to go with a DOS system that was really designed for rural, less urbanized counties than we are. That system could not hold all of the data in our old system. In early 200 1 we did yet another conversion to go into the Windows environment and took what information that was put in the small DOS system into the new Wingap system. IT dug into the old system and pulled the information out for us and loaded it into the new system. My staff worked in teams to verify the information that was put in. We needed new hardware for our offIce and got that to produce a digest for 2002. Many problems we were having with information falling offwere eliminated. We still had some problems but were able to go forward with the revaluation for 2002. We had some properties where improvements had fallen off, accessory improvements had fallen off and we would discover those. We did a year-end this year with this system. We had to do what is called "fIxes" where information that had fallen off was brought back. Unfortunately when a lot of the information was brought back, the information had been cleaned up and should not have been included in our system. The reappraisals went out in August of2002 and we received approximately 4,200 appeals. We were still correcting our data as we were going through, revisiting properties. We cleaned up the residential fairly easily, but our commercial properties' improvements were very diffIcult to manage. W.e had a flat digest as a result of that. We have approximately $153 million in valued growth and that equates to about $6l.5 million in assessments. Many problems with the inflated digest were due to the fact that properties were not tied to proper schedules. Swamp land was valued at commercial values and that had an inflationary effect on our digest and when the owners were notifIed, they appealed and we expected that. The primary thing was the improvements coming back that were lost shouldn't have been there. As a result of that, we had a .5% decrease in our digest.. The question was raised that if we had an inflationary 2002 digest, why were collections adequate and on target for 2002? When we did the 2002 projection and budget, we only projected a 212% growth in the digest for 2002. The actual growth inflated was about 5.4%. As we corrected the defIciencies of the data in our system, it took it back down to about what was projected as the growth. The shortfall coming in for 2003 is that we had projected a growth based on historic happenings of about 2 1/2%. I believe Finance used three. We did not actually see that growth because of the correcting of the data of the inflated 2002. I would encourage the Commission to look at a no growth just to be on the safe side. We have recommended preparing a request to the legislative delegation that they revisit the rollback formulas we have in place put in by Gov. Barnes so that when we had reassessments the Commission automatically had to lower their millage rate to generate no more tax dollars than what they'd collected in previous year. That rollback formula does not take in the benefit that if you have a deminition in your digest that you should be able to raise your millage rate back to that same amount to generate the same tax dollars you had in the previous year. We have been submitting quarterly reports and we're recommending that we g~t more funding for information technology through SPLOST V to allow us to get a true, good operating system. I I Mr. Williams: Why was it not brought to our attention that ~he need for good equipment was of primary importance? '" .) Mr. Reece: It was our understanding from the administration that funding would not be available for the equipment we needed. After further discussion, Mr. Mayor: I would ask the Commission to consider adopting a resolution to request the State Revenue Commissioner to set up a performance review of our Assessors Department and the Board of Assessors. This is a new law and the assessment would be overseen by the State Revenue Commissioner who would appoint the review board within thirty days of the request and their report is generally completed within three months. I Mr. Chairman: How much would this cost us? Mr. Mayor: We would reimburse direct expenses which generally are less than $2,000 and I would recommend we share this cost with the Board of Education which receives about three-quarters of the money that comes in from property taxes. After additional discussion, Mr. Hankerson: I'd like to put it in the form of a motion that we have a performance review by the Department of State Revenue to look at the department and come back and make recommendations back to us on what we really need to do. Mr. Chairman: Second. ADJOURNMENT: There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned. I Motion adopted unanimously. Lena J. Bonner, Clerk of Commission I 4