If budgets reflect values and what and who matters most, it was property owners and county employees— particularly first responders like deputies, firefighters and ambulance workers—who came out ahead in the Putnam County Board of Commissioners’ (BOC) budget meetings last week.
In short:
• The base millage rate for the 2022-23 fiscal year starting Oct. 1 will be cut back from the current year’s 7.720 mils to the “rollback rate” of 6.779 mils, resulting in a zero increase in the county’s overall property tax rate as opposed to the advertised 13.88 percent increase envisioned in the county manager’s recommended budget.
• Beginning Oct. 1, all county employees will receive an eight-percent costof- living adjustment (COLA). Some among the county’s large contingent of first responders will receive increases ranging from 11 to 27 percent in the name of “catch-up” and retention. From the very beginning of what is really a months-long process, keeping the effective millage rate the same as this year’s was the primary goal for Commission Chairman Billy Webster, with the other four commissioners all in line behind it, too.
Yet, the budget approved last Friday achieves the commission’s primary goal without severe cuts in services, at least for the present. The county will operate in 2022-23 at essentially the same level, with the same revenues as this year— about $24.1 million for the general fund, plus an estimated $2 million each from the special purpose (SPLOST) and transportation special purpose (T-SPLOST) sales taxes. It is a stable budget, but it is also a standstill budget.
Some of the revenue cuts necessary for no increase in the millage rate will be made up, ironically enough, from increased property taxes in certain neighborhoods. The county’s tax digest rose by a significant 20 percent, fueled primarily by 2020-21 COVIDrelated spikes in sales prices for lakeside properties. And with increased property values come increased property taxes.
However, the biggest chunk for making up the difference came in shifting $1.5 million from the county’s fund balance to next year’s budget. The fund balance would then stand at $9.1 million. (Recommendations from various accounting organizations vary from twoto six-months operating expenses to be held in reserve.)
As for cuts in the proposed budget, Webster praised the cooperation of the various county department heads and the courthouse’s constitutional officers in postponing a myriad of smaller purchases and updates.
But the major cut involved pushing at least one large expense into the future. Last winter, when County Manager Paul Van Haute began his first look at the upcoming year’s budget, he penciled in $2 million for “unfunded pension liability.” About 10 years ago, the county switched from a benefit- based retirement plan to a contribution-based system for new hires, similar to a 401k plan.
About half the county’s employees remain in the old plan, and in four to five years there will be a peak in retirees drawing on the old plan. That plan requires approximately $4 million to be fully funded.
“Strategically, (the suggested $2 million paydown) made sense back in January. Later I tried half that amount, and now it’s been cut to one-fourth,” Van Haute told the commissioners. “I would just like not having that hanging over the heads of future boards.”
Still, $500,000 remains in the budget this year toward evening out the unfunded liability.