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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCalled Commission Meeting July 17, 2012 CALLED MEETING COMMISSION CHAMBER July 17, 2012 Augusta Richmond County Commission convened at 4:45 p.m., Tuesday, July 17, 2012, the Honorable Deke Copenhaver, Mayor, presiding. PRESENT: Hons. Lockett, Guilfoyle, Smith, Aitken, Jackson, Bowles and Brigham, members of Augusta Richmond County Commission. ABSENT: Hons. Johnson, Hatney and Mason, members of Augusta Richmond County Commission. Mayor Copenhaver called the meeting to order. Mr. Russell: The state has looked at the digest and approved that so we are now setting a millage rate. As the state looks at the digest, it takes several things into consideration, one of which is growth or the lack of growth in this particular case. They have established a priority of the system, I guess, several years ago to try to make sure the counties did not take advantage of growth in a windfall, basically, and have a roll back system there so that if there was a great deal of growth in the county through assessments they would roll the millage rate back. In the current times today with the lack of growth that is occurring because of the recession that we’re facing, that formula works in a different way on some occasions. In this particular case our roll back number is a little bit higher than it was last year. When we talk about a little bit higher, we’re talking about .1% higher or .1 mill higher so we’re not talking about a whole lot in the general fund. What we are talking about is the situation we talked about in November and this is with our fire fund. We know that we had some issues there. We know that we had some issues with the fire tax, the fire insurance tax premium that we were getting. That did come to fruition. We ended up getting about 1.6 million less than we had previously in that tax. That’s based on population. That creates a pool of dollars, that’s x number of dollars they take based on population and they divide it among the local jurisdictions. While our population grew some last year, it didn’t grow the same percentage as other places did and we had a loss there. We talked in November about a potential increase in the fire fund and we are currently recommending a .55 increase in that fund and what that actually amounts to would be increasing that one fund and accepting the roll back numbers for the other funds. If you look at the next slide, what I am going to say now, on a $100,000 house if you include the rollback numbers, if you include the increase in the fire fund, if you include the increase rollback in the capital fund, the increase would be $19.64 a year. $19.64 a year on a $100,000 house. We use the $100,000 for two reasons. One of which is it’s easy to calculate and the second of which is that’s the actual average value of a house in Augusta. So the average homeowner would pay countywide $19.64 more or $1.64 a month. Most of that goes toward the fire fund where we have the most issues. All but 35 cents goes toward the fire fund basically so most of that covers that. A little bit towards the capital fund, about 2 cents, and most of that goes to the fire fund. Actually, the general fund is 35 cents, the capital outlay fund is 4 cents and the fire fund would be $19.25. Questions that’s usually asked is what can we tax and where are we at against the tax cap. If you look at this slide, it will tell you that. The tax cap was established uniquely for Augusta years ago to make sure that we didn’t unfairly tax our citizens. You can debate that up and down one way or the other but it is the law. In the general fund we’re currently at 86.4% of the cap. In the fire fund we’re at 66% of the cap and, I’m sorry, in the urban services fund we’re at 66% of the cap. In the fire fund with the increases that we’ve proposed you’re at 71.1% of the cap. As we all know that cap is somewhat conservative so to be this far below in these particular funds I think is a statement based on good management and good fiscal policy set by you as a commission in giving us our direction to move forward with that. Let me reiterate what we’d a motion to approve the proposed millage rate like to do. If you go to the next slide which is for the schedule listed on page 3 and if we go back one, that would be page 3 for the millage rate in the general fund the total mills there and we do that across the board which results in a $19.64 increase. It would be appropriate to have a motion to that effect at this time. Mr. Mayor: Commissioner Brigham. Mr. Brigham: I would make that motion that we accept the recommendation of the staff. Mr. Smith: Second. Mr. Mayor: We have a motion and a second. Is there any further discussion? Commissioner Bowles. Mr. Bowles: I’d be remiss if I didn’t ask this question, Mr. Mayor, so I apologize for being redundant on this issue. Mr. Russell. Mr. Russell: Mr. Bowles, I think I could probably answer your question – Mr. Bowles: What is our plan to remove the disparity between the two tax districts which we have in our consolidated government which I believe is illegal? Mr. Russell: We have attempted to hire consultants to help us with that. We have attempted internally to come to some recognition of that. We have yet to be able to come to a conclusion that I’m comfortable recommending at this particular point in time. I don’t disagree with you that that needs to be a direction that we need to go in. I don’t know the answer to how to get that done. We’re looking at the Carl Vinson Institute to help. We’re hired one of their major people. He came in and took a look for a while and said, “Ya’ll need to work on that.” We need to do that. I don’t know the answer yet. th Mr. Bowles: Until then, on January 4 when I’m no longer an elected official, a lawsuit will be served to this county. Mr. Russell: And I will probably join you with that. Mr. Mayor: Commissioner Guilfoyle. Mr. Guilfoyle: Yes, thank you, Mr. Mayor. Mr. Administrator, District 8 is totally different than any other district in this county. We actually border the side of Burke County, Jenkins County or whatever other county. We actually have ISO rating which costs our residents in our district a higher cost per insurance. Would this have any effect to reduce the cost of their insurance? I know it has a lot to do with coverage. Will we implement or put in new fire stations out there in our district? Mr. Russell: I don’t know if I could speak to the impact of doing this as far as a reduction in their service or the cost of their insurance. I can speak to the fact that if we don’t take these steps, it’s probably going to impact it in a negative way. This keeps us moving, it keeps us fluid and to not do this I think would probably be more of a negative impact than to do anything else. So I know that’s not a sufficient answer to what you’re trying to get to but it’s one of those that I can’t promise you it’s going to help but I can pretty much guarantee if we don’t take these steps, it’s going to hurt. Mr. Mayor: And I would like to, before we vote on this, make one more note on District 8. Last Friday CNN broadcast live from District 8 at the groundbreaking of the new $172 million dollar Starbucks facility right here in Augusta in your district, so congratulations on that. Mr. Guilfoyle: I’ve got to compliment Walter Sprouse as well as everybody else that was involved in making that happen as well as the colleagues and the commission here. Thank ya’ll. Mr. Mayor: If there’s no further discussion, Commissioners will now vote by the usual sign of voting. Motion carries 7-0. Mr. Russell: Thank you, Mr. Mayor, for that. Let me share with you the next steps as we go forward with this. Required advertisements will appear in Thursday’s paper. We need to have a special called meeting on August 2 based on the time frame for the approval of the mill rates. The digest will then be submitted for approval with our mill rates and once that is approved, the Tax Commissioner will send out the bills. This is not quite as important to us but it is to the School Board because of their funding issues there but we appreciate ya’ll working with us and them on that. Thank you. Mr. Mayor: If there’s no further business to come before the body, I will adjourn the special called meeting and call to order the regular Commission meeting. [MEETING ADJOURNED] Lena J. Bonner Clerk of Commission CERTIFICATION: I, Lena J. Bonner, Clerk of Commission, hereby certify that the above is a true and correct copy of the minutes of the Regular Meeting of the Augusta Richmond County Commission held on July 17, 2012. ______________________ Clerk of Commission