COVINGTON, Ga. — Newton commissioners sent their new interim county manager back to the drawing board with the first budget he submitted Tuesday amid concerns about higher taxes and funding operations set up to be self-funding.
The numerous objections prompted Chairman Marcello Banes to abruptly postpone a scheduled public hearing Tuesday night so Interim County Manager Jarvis Sims could make changes to the 2023 county budget in response to three commissioners’ comments.
Sims, who started work in March, had presented a 2023 budget plan totaling $135.6 million that was 14% larger than the 2022 budget of $118.6 million. The General Fund of $84.7 million was a 9% increase.
Much of the budget increase was needed just to attract and keep employees before they go to neighboring cities and counties and the private sector, he said.
“I do know our employees are leaving,” Sims said. “We need to look at our wages for our employees.”
Sims said the county had trouble attracting qualified candidates to open positions and keeping existing employees. He noted one open position that paid $40,000 annually only attracted two applicants.
The first version of the budget plan included a previously proposed step increase for employees that will cost $1.4 million.
It also increased the minimum wage for employees to $15, at a cost of $300,0000; and gave a 4% cost of living adjustment (COLA) that will cost $1.1 million.
Sims added that 10 new employees — including seven for the fire department — were requested in the budget with funding for six months at a total of $401,000.
“The positions that are proposed are essential positions,” he said.
Within the 2023 budget, Public Safety was to receive the majority of expenditures (54%), with General Government (17%), Judicial (9%) and Public Works (8%) receiving most of the remainder.
A total of $500,000 was planned for placement in the Reserves account to have money available for any budget changes during the fiscal year. Another $401,000 — less than half the amount budgeted in 2022 — was planned for a Contingency account to pay for new hires not included in the 2023 budget.
The budget plan assumed a 15% increase in all tax revenues, including a 10% increase in property tax revenue from leaving the property tax rate at its current 11.145 mills.
Revenues were estimated based on an assumption the county tax digest — the assessed value of all taxable property in Newton County — would increase 11% from 2022, Sims said.
However, District 5 Commissioner Ronnie Cowan said he had concerns about leaving the property tax at its current level rather than reducing it because of rapidly increasing property values on which assessments are based.
Cowan, a former human resources director for Covington city government, now works as an attorney primarily doing real estate closings. He said a decline he had seen in the real estate market led to him believing an economic slowdown of some kind was coming.
The tax rate should be lowered and any new money for personnel should go only to existing employees, Cowan said.
“I would strongly suggest you hold back on hiring,” he said. “Taxes are just too high.”
He said the current tax rate generated unexpected extra revenue for the 2022 budget.
“That money should have gone back to the taxpayer,” Cowan said. “We don’t need to have an excess of money.”
He also warned against expecting residents to pay more in property taxes and vote for a renewal of the 1% SPLOST which city and county governments rely on for infrastructure and equipment needs.
“Don’t kill SPLOST by burdening people with heavy taxes,” Cowan said.
District 3 Commissioner Alana Sanders said she had questions about the county continuing to subsidize the landfill and Factory Shoals Park when the county and Solid Waste Management Authority were charging fees for use of their facilities.
She and District 4 Commissioner J.C. Henderson also questioned the continued county management of the Gaither’s at Myrtle Creek Farms event facility in south Newton.
Henderson has called for the county to sell the antebellum home — in part because its earliest owners used slave labor to work its farmland.
He said he wanted the Board to vote on continued funding of the facility.
“I don’t think we should continue investing money in Gaither’s,” he said.
Sanders, though, suggested leasing it to an event planner or other private individual.
County Attorney Patrick Jaugstetter told Banes another public hearing would need to be scheduled to replace the one canceled Tuesday.
