Public Hearing Proposed Budget-Patrick Co. Board of Supervisors
May 16, 2009
May 18-A public hearing on the proposed budget July 1, 2009-June 30, 2010 was held in Patrick County, giving the citizenry the opportunity to give public comment.
News report
Patrick County Board of Supervisors Meeting, May 18, 2009
Public Hearing on Proposed Budget July 1, 2009-June 30, 2010
A public hearing was conducted on the Proposed Budget for 2009-2010. Ten citizens came forward to make public comment. This is summary of some of the comments:
• Sacrifices in County budget are not evident with increased spending for major projects, accumulation of a contingency fund and the tax rate of .48 per hundred. Citizens are hurting financially and taxes assessments are competing with their budget for food, gas and prescriptions for those on fixed income
• The County should cut the budget down to where the economy is now. Some of the expenditures on large projects should be postponed or trimmed back to minimize the impact to citizens.
• Some said that they were not in favor of the $6,400,000 contingency fund. Local citizens do not have rainy day funds.
• One person said the tax burden was shifting from flat land property owners to mountain land owners and shifting from the young people to the old people.
• Opposition was expressed to the twice a year payment for taxes.
• Rick Ward of the Patrick County Library asked that the decrease in their budget be reduced from 5% decrease to 2.5% decrease. He emphasized that the high unemployment has increased usage of the library, because all unemployment claims and job searches have to be done by Internet and these people do not have high speed Internet access except through the library. The reduced allocation result in decreased staff levels and opening hours.
• Tom Bishop of the Chamber of Commerce said the allocation of $5000 to The Crooked Road Music Trail was excessive based on the lack of attention given the Patrick County Music Association and the Town of Stuart on the web site. He cited examples of where no mention of the Meadows of Dan Visitor center and the Crooked Road kiosk was found on their web site. The Chamber has been a strong supporter of the Crooked Road Music Trail and has given out 1000’s of advertisement brochures and maintains the Meadows of Dan kiosk, yet insufficient attention to Patrick County is given by their advertisements.
Jay Scudder, County Administrator, gave a financial forecast showing the plan to maintain a 7-10% contingency fund balance and the plan to do twice a year billing for property taxes. He illustrated their efforts to reduce cost by bringing cleaning services in house, combining jobs with Animal Control and the Sheriff Department, cutting emergency services, and other staff reductions.
Jay also reported that easement for the Angel Overlook on Squirrel’s Spur Road had been signed and the kiosk work can begin by VDOT and County Maintenance personnel.
Karl Weiss reported that Denise Stirewalt of Jim Litten Real Estate had resigned as a member of the Tourism Advisory Committee. By a unanimous vote, Brooks Bradbury of Primland Resort was chosen as a replacement.
Ron Knight urged the current Board of Supervisors to help small businesses and give tax breaks on Machine and Tools tax. He sited Kendrick Paving as an example of a company with lots of heavy equipment and needing relief. Janet Rorrer, Commissioner of Revenue reminded them that Machine and Tools tax only applied to a manufacturing process.
Karl Weiss discussed the situation of the Chamber of Commerce having unspent Tourism budget for 2008-2009, and that letting it go back to the General Fund would be like penalizing them for being frugal and managing the money well. He feels it should be available for use in the next budget period for worthy projects. Tourism money is collected from the lodging tax and should be used only for Tourism purposes.
The next Board of Supervisors meeting will be held on June 8 at 6:00pm, and this will be a full meeting with key decisions to adopt the 48 cents tax rate and the budget for 2009-2010.
Reported by: Tom Bishop
