Budget proposal nears $13 million

BROWNSTOWN - Jackson County Council members heard from officeholders and department heads Wednesday about their 2009 budget requests totaling nearly $13 million.

Council also reviewed a proposed 3 percent pay increase for most county workers.

The $12.9 million re-quests surpass the $9.89 million the state ap-proved for this year's budget, meaning cuts will likely have to be made when the council reconvenes Sept. 15.

There are some areas in next year's general fund requests where larger savings may be found.

One of those is the assessor's request of $1.2 million for reassessment, which must be done every four years.

Assessor Bev Gaiter suggested council consider hiring a person full time for reassessment duties.

"You would have on-going continual assessment," Gaiter said during the hearings at the courthouse annex.

That move would eliminate the need to hire contractors every four years to go out and canvass the county to determine changes in properties, Gaiter said.

Those contractors charge a set fee for every parcel in the county, and there are about 29,000 parcels, Gaiter said.

She estimated that would cost the county $1.074 million in 2009.

Such a new full-time person would take care of new construction, which costs about $40,000 a year, and canvass other properties at the same time, keeping assessments up-to-date, Gaiter said.

If the council decided to hire a full-time person for assessments this year, they would not be able to catch everything up-to-date in time for next year's reassessment, but there could be some savings, Gaiter said.

She said other counties have full-time employees for assessment.

"And they have no problems," Gaiter said.

Councilman Andy Fountain said he would be interested in considering the idea.

"I think it's good," Fountain said.

Councilman Matt Reedy agreed.

"I just think that would make sense," Reedy said.

Gaiter said if the state would not accept the idea of continual reassessment, all the county would have to do is send the full-time employee out to do drive bys and make sure there were no changes in properties. Gaiter also asked for two new employees with salaries of $27,000 each because the Jackson Township Assessor's office was consolidated with her office by the state earlier this year.

The proposed budget also includes $500,000 for software for systems to connect the courts, the sheriff's department and other county departments dealing with criminal issues with the state's other 91 counties.

Jackson Superior Court I Judge Bruce Markel and the county's information technology director Mark Simmons said the state told them Wednesday it will pay for that software. Simmons suggested the council take that money out of the general fund and place it in a new bond issue in case the state changes its mind. The county also will have some startup costs related to the program, but those costs are not yet known, Simmons said.

Sheriff Marc Lahrman also requested two new jail officers in his $1.8 million jail budget, which is up from this year's budget of $1.5 million. Lahrman also requested $133,117 for animal control, and council members told him to prepare a budget for security for Jackson Superior Court II. The state approved funding for security officers for that court when it was established at the beginning of this year.

Funds were approved, but not broken down by line item, Lahrman said, so he has never been told how much he can budget for security. The state did not send the county's approved budget for this year until Wednesday morning, which is another reason a security program at the court has not been established.
Dan Banks, director of the Jackson County Juvenile Home, said the state has begun paying the home for housing juveniles from the county.

"We've brought in $100,000 to the general fund this year, and $70,000 of that was from out-of-county juveniles," Banks said.

The remainder was for housing local children, and Banks said if the state continues paying for local juveniles to be at the home, it may one day become a moneymaker for the county. His proposed budget for the home was $207,101.

The proposed budget includes a proposed pay increase of 3 percent across the board for county employees with the exception of jail officers, who would be slated for 5 percent raises.

Dennis Brasher, executive director of the county's emergency medical services, asked council to approve three new emergency medical technicians.

"We're maxed out all the time," Brasher said. "We continue to have more and more runs, and we are not able to fulfill some of them without a delay."

The closure of Columbus Regional Hospital because of the June 8 flood just made problems worse, Brasher said.

The new EMTs would make another ambulance available, Brasher said.

Council members will begin the budget cutting process at 8 a.m. Sept. 15 at the courthouse annex.