yes
you ready man
good afternoon
everyone i would like to welcome you to
the russell county board of supervisor
special called meeting at 3 p.m in the
russell county board
room i would like to first start off
with the call of order and roll call
tim lovelace here
carl ray here
david
here
steve brady here rebecca die here in
norse christian president
and luanne wallace here ma'am you have a
quorum
thank you mr lester at this time i'll
ask for the invocation please i'll rise
father god lord we love you we thank you
we praise you today father father we ask
you to forgive us for where we fail you
each and every day and be with us during
uh this time father father thank you for
allowing us to come out and be a part of
our community father for it's in your
name upright amen
amen of the united states of america and
to the republic for which it stands one
nation under god indivisible with
liberty and justice for all
at this time we'll have the approval of
the agenda
i'll make that motion thank you miss
dyne need a second
see
thank you mr ray all in favor
any opposed
motion carries
at this time we'll have our discussion
on our new business
mr lester i'm going to turn that over to
you
thank you madam chair
of course the only thing on the new
business is in most counties throughout
the state of virginia during these next
couple weeks at which we were we just
came from a luncheon with the secretary
of commerce for the state of virginia
and the new director of virginia
economic development partnership
of course today is a special call
meeting as long as other counties for
consideration of the russell county
22 tax rates
to
it's part of the process to develop our
budget
as everyone knows that we have went
through two years of a pandemic and we
have also
held on to our own during the time
but also
now we've got other headwinds financial
headwinds that have occurred to us and
that and that is
the rate of inflation
so
first i'd like to start off with is the
in
the public notice as course right now
before the board of supervisors the
current rates for the real estate is 63
cents on the hundred and
and so is for mobile homes personal
property is 195 machinery and tool of
course by the code virginia has to match
the personal property at 195 and of
course the merchant's capital tax is
says 65
65 cents
so right now
during the last board meeting the board
of supervisors
due to the state of virginia not having
a complete budget which we receive
enormous amount of federal and state
funding for
that to plan a budget with
we y'all passed a resolution to extend
the tax date until june the 29th
of 2022 which is the last day by code of
virginia that we have to have the budget
approved
so
i hope and sincerely hope that the state
of virginia general assembly gets it
together by that time
of all counties in the state of virginia
from fairfax to arlington all the way
down to russell county is waiting on the
same thing so
of course each side is posturing on its
own but they have work to do and so do
we so
in
the
resolution so here is what i i'm going
to be presenting to today
in a slideshow
as i you have seen a similar version of
it before
and
this is the things that
of course that we'll be looking at
during the
fy 22 and 23. now what board has to
remember some of these issues will go
also into 23 24 it's it's based off the
state budget this is a biennium budget
so
the numbers that is tied to the federal
pass-through and the state
pass-through and support also is in a
biennium role so that
what numbers we look at today
or consider this fyi will also lead into
the other
so
as you can see
let me get this and i apologize
so that way we're talking
of course in this year's fy 2223 budget
planning issues
again i had emphasized in the previous
board meetings
these are issues that
not created by the russell county board
of supervisors or russell kingly
departments or russell county spending
these are issues that were implemented
by the state that we have to follow and
implement by the code so
of course everyone knows that the
minimum wage last january went from up
to 11 an hour
by code we have to follow and pay that
so
again
in this year in january it's going to 12
an hour now this is only over the next
two current fiscal years it will proceed
until it's 15 an hour so it's it's going
to be hard that's what i was referring
to earlier things in this first budget
year are going to continue not just this
year but next year but years to follow
so
either you you know we look at a
catch-up or you know we address it now
of course also another thing that was
implemented by the state of virginia was
the virginia retirement services this
was an another implementation by the
general assembly they raised the vr's
retirement contribution to
and
again that's another one also on the
table right now for the general assembly
is for 20 22 and 23 budget years and 23
and 24 budget years
is a proposed five percent salary
increase
for
uh
county for county employees and state
employees
now
if everyone has heard the grocery tax is
2.5 cents
now how that is divided up by the code
of virginia 1.5 cents of that 2.5
is allocated 1.5 1.5 is allocated to the
schools the schools are coming in at
level funding they are
already have notified me
that they will be coming in level
funding what that means is that the
governor is paying for their raise
no contribution from the county
for the next two years
so other beyond that it's remember this
is a biennium budget
but on the county side the board of
supervisors has to address the five
percent raise on our side
they do not fund us our raises
so that is another issue that has come
before it
the state
is famous coming from the state
at pushing
cost at the state level to the local
level and another issue you'll see
we've also as you'll see in the
documentation the regional jail cost
you know
even though you know we have worked at
keeping our inmates here with community
work program
we have diverted from them worked within
recovery we have done other issues and
programs to keep them out where right
now we have been notified and tim you
can tell me in orders can
this is the letter that you'll see
we're looking at 300
000 increase just in jail cost so that's
another issue so all these issues
along with the rate of inflation which
is 10 to 15 which who knows by what it
will be by the time we get into this
fiscal year
of all six of these issues the impact to
the county from a financial perspective
so
this is what is going to set the tax
rate the tax rate in this in rosa county
in 1999 was 64 cents on a hundred it was
one penny lower higher than it is right
now so for 23 years there has not been a
tax
increase so
that's good
so we got to figure out how we can make
it through this
inflationary times again it was not
created by the russell county board of
supervisors
none of these issues were it was on a
national level
i ain't gonna point no fingers or it was
at a state level
but we have got to deal with it from a
legal perspective and make sure that we
deliver
the the services that russell county
citizens are used to
and take care of our employees at the
same time
so
one of the things next is and just to
give a brief history
and a lot of people
go back this board is serving on their
second term over the last seven years
and a lot of people don't know they
they move in they move out but i wanted
to do a recap on the
22-23 budget history of what the county
has
major issues that we have went through
okay
when 2014 when this board took over 15
into the beginning
we had a 3 million dollar rand note
revenue anticipation what that means is
we were operating on borrowed money
the second thing we had even though we
were working on borrowed money we were
at a 1.5 million dollar deficit
also over the last seven years back to
2014
we have been in
legal issues with a company here over
their tax liability which is a total of
10.8 million dollars
so we lost that revenue that was about
1.2 million in a year loss in revenue
also our co-severance we know we have no
operational mines currently in the
county that is just it we lost a coal a
a loss of coal severance we're not like
buchanan county or dixon county
we do have manufacturing we're very
diverse in our businesses but one of the
things that we do not have is coal right
now
so we lost about approximately 600 000 a
year off of this
so if you get keep going through
and you add up you know the million
dollar and half deficit three million
dollar rando the million point two in
revenue loss from a major corporation
six hundred thousand in coal severance
and you're wondering how we haven't
raised taxes
they did it through cutting cost they
have cut everything we have done nothing
but we operate on a cost cutting
operation mode
we have cut
the landfill cost we have cut to the
disposal costs we have cut lecture costs
ever and
we have cut
we've consolidated operations this is
not just from the schools but also from
the courts to the sheriffs
all the way through each one of the
departments has sacrificed and they work
and they work at a lean and mean i mean
it is with very little
and i see heads nodding
and some of them know that this is what
we do
since and what you will see in our
budgets is
over the last five years it's level
funding there hasn't been no current
increase in anything unless it's
contractual or anything between the
schools you'll see level funding level
funding sheriff's department level
funding level funding they have operated
in that mode while simultaneously doing
operational cuts
so
now what that transitions into even
though it is and we've done cost cutting
some major cost cutting to keep that
kind of revenue up
we have
we have got our landfill under control
we put in new disposal sites i know that
that's not important but it is important
uh we have built four new additional
sites we've upgraded the community
centers we've upgraded the ballparks
we're not done yet
but we have we've had to work with a bit
loss of revenue while simultaneously
trying to cut cost and increase your
services
also even on the courthouse that that
course houses that's built and i'm i
mention it and it's no increased debt
right now it is no increased debt as far
as one maturity goes to the next one
comes in there is no increase in debt
and of course like as i mentioned before
there's been no county tax rate
increases since 1999 and it was actually
higher than it is now
so
now
those are some of the talking points on
the what they have
they're looking at now with
the new
national
inflation and what they're looking at
now i know that in the previous years
and when we last year when we
implemented the
cigarette in the mill tax i know there
was a lot of issues about it at the end
that's one of the things they're saving
because remember we got to make up that
1.2 million that six hundred thousand
dollar loss that 122 million dollar loss
why simultaneously cutting costs
again like we had emphasized during that
time and while our records have shown
over the last 12 months
this is about a 300 000 increase to the
county and it it majority of that cost
is from the traveling public which we
know it's just the way it is they come
through here zooming on 58 and 19 they
slowed down enough to pull into lebanon
buy pack cigarettes and mcdonald's and
right out they go just like we thought
so when we look at and also during the
biggest thing during the pandemic there
was a lot of one of the things that
we're seeing also on this issue is the
loss of local sales tax
the sales tax again i had mentioned
before on the grocery tax but this is
the sales tax during the pandemic there
was a lot of money that was given out
there was a lot of people that went and
bought tvs and microwaves and god bless
you you did it kept us running but now
it's gone so it that's why i'm showing a
2.6
decrease in our sales tax the free money
is over that translates back to sales
tax for us but again it's another drop
in a number that we've got in a level
funding budget
so
again the cigarette tax and the meal tax
kind of kept our head above the water
during this time especially now that
we're losing real uh
sales tax due to the lack of spending
with the inflationary rates the rate of
of uh
the inflationary rate and the rate of
interest rates going up everyone knows
they see it on tv every day
it is going to get harder and harder
rate of fuel the fuel alone in this
county and we are operating on state
contracts which means
the sheriff's department the psa
the county cars disposal units are
running on
government-backed state contracts what
that means in fuel is we don't pay local
and sales tax we are running the leanest
meanest that we can get
on these operations
but again even though the price of fuel
does not have federal and state tax with
it it will keep increasing the price of
diesel as everybody looked at today
you're into the five
our cost on diesel fuel alone is a win
of 5 000 a month
so it's hard to look through these
numbers when we look
and then the tax base
if you look in the in russell county as
all counties do before and i've got the
commission revenue and the treasury here
they'll tell you there's five taxes that
make up the majority of the budget for
russell county real estate tax personal
property machining tool sales tax
there's there's your king and queen and
brother and sister of taxes so
when we get to that point right here
what you see on the screen
between the mobile home and this these
line items right here and these are the
local sales there's the majority
of our total budget of 25 million
dollars you're at 20 million right here
in these two is this group right here
that's it
so
what the board is looking at is
it has to consider is you know this is
what we're looking at one one of the
things that we do and we do very well
between the commissioner's office the
treasurer's office in our office
we set an estimate based off the
assessment of real estate and personal
property now how close were we in these
estimates
we're at
99.6
accuracy for the last five years 99.6
that's how close we can get these
and that's pretty good if it wasn't for
the delinquency pays
there's where the variance is
and you'll see those later
now
as you can see these are the real
numbers those are not budget numbers
these are the real numbers
as you can see on the real estate during
the first phase of real estate
our our taxes remember 99.6
estimate based off the base property
assessments
we're still
152 000 short of people that have not
paid
that's in the first quarter so if i
double my quarters we're looking at 300
000 drop in real estate alone not
counting the 1.2 million from
the suits not to 600
600 000 and co-severance but this is
dealing with this year alone
as we keep going through the mineral tax
as you can see i'm 168 000 short just in
mineral tax
also sorry about that
also on the delinquency tax these are
this even in the federal our delete our
property our public service taxes
we're at 38 000 short on it
now down to the personal property as you
can see out of our total were 244 000
short
right now in delinquency
so again the king and queen brother and
sister of taxes is here and of course
the sales tax
is here out of our projections just
because the spending has went down due
to the pandemic
we're short 188 000
so those are hard numbers to make up
so
it's hard
to make up the revenue while we have the
state as you're going to see
this is from the regional jail
the state has again i have mentioned
previously has the
philosophy the man
the planning when they do things they
want the localities to share in it the
regional jails they will try to push the
cost down to the counties
as you can see on the regional jail here
is our increase even though we have
dropped our inmates and we're diverting
them into the community work program
we're going from a budget of 180 inmates
to 171 but our cost went at 300 000
dollars
their cost got went up in their salaries
their operating costs so they're
shifting the cost to the counties
not that we're not performing not we're
not reducing remember we're reducing
we're putting the work out here you see
them cleaning up the side of the road
you see them doing the community centers
you see the pics on facebook we're doing
this but it's not translating
at the at the regional jail they're up
there they're paying their employees and
we're going to absorb the cost of all
those salary increases
next of course
this is why another thing i want to
point out to the board of supervisors
when
when we have businesses and the
transition to
the idas and and when we put things you
know
donations and easements right now we've
lost about 21 million 329 dollars and
800
and
assets that are setting idle you see
what i'm saying that is a total and that
translates into 140 134
377.40 74 cents in properties of these
13
that are
vacant or vacant or non-operational
assets
so during the pandemic and we were on
track during that time to get those
assets up put jobs in them the pandemic
went down
and everybody came to a standstill
these will eventually get back up but it
will take time to get back up
so as we keep transitioning through
these
these are the things that we must look
at
so we've got to get these back
operational we've got to keep as current
inflation the biggest headwinds that we
have is inflation both commission
revenue and the treasurer will tell you
it's
that was one thing that we cannot fix
it's rising faster than we can keep up
with the rate of inflation
so
what i'm proposing to the board for
consideration after all these things and
i'm going to turn it over to the
commissioner revenue and the treasurer
and let them talk about these but these
are the big issues that we're seeing and
that must be considered for the budget
and i know it looks hard but again
the board of supervisors for us county
did not create these
this is created by the federal and the
state on their programs or it's done by
the the resid
by the pandemic but as we're coming out
of it and what we can do
so
who will ray do you want to speak first
real estate start start off with texas
there's there's mine
you're hot
i was afraid of that
i've been in the hot seat before
well another first thing
i would say to the county
we've never been here before
we have never been in this kind of a
situation
with inflation running as high as it is
all these costs that's directly
affecting
each and every one of us and the county
is a business
as a county we're a business it affects
us exactly the same way
and it's hard to
make your budget whether it be at home
or
whether it be here
i wish
these were not the real numbers but
lonzo's giving you the real numbers the
numbers up there that's
what we've talked about that's what we
pull it's
that's the best numbers that we can get
we've
we've been going out and trying to find
new construction find things we've
missed matter of fact
i don't know where else to look i mean
i've got them on the little dirt roads
i've got them everywhere looking to see
just to make sure
we've got everything first on the tax
roll
not to say that we don't miss things
sometimes
but what lonzo is telling you about
this loss of revenue through some of
these buildings and some of these assets
that's not bringing back any revenues
they're sitting there
they're tax exempt we're not getting
anything from it
um
we started out
in hopes
of some return revenues and people come
into these buildings but it didn't
happen
now they're sitting there and it affects
each and every one of us
and it really hurts our county
we need
industry in these buildings we need jobs
and we don't have it
it's a tough time
it's not just us it's getting worse
so
for me to give you good news i don't
guess i have any good news other than
we just have to try to live within our
means we need to look at their numbers
every agency
we're going to have to really
be as lean as we can be in all these
categories
and that list he put up there of all of
our
on the lost revenues
now those are big numbers and there's a
lot of smaller ones that's not up there
so
the numbers are real
the times is real
it's time that uh
i guess we all put our heads together
we're all in the same boat
we're all gonna have to work together
we're gonna have to help one another
do our part whichever agency we belong
to
and you guys i know you got a hard job
ahead of you
um
i don't
rally sitting in your chair
but
it's hard decisions
anybody can make the easy decisions
but when it comes to the hard ones
uh
we're we're there today
and
that's
basically it
questions
i do if you don't mind
this is not a hot seat question
but in order to
uh at this point in time it is not up to
the board of supervisors to divest
ourselves of any property that has been
purchased correct and taken off the roll
it's not hit
it's not within our purview is that
correct that is correct but on some of
the properties i guess in
i don't know how it works with you all
in the ida
but most of it's ida properties
and some of these properties that were
listed were private properties that went
to tax exempt i mean we had a few
churches in there
which there's nothing wrong with that
but
you know it it becomes tax-exempt
you're writing what you said yes
thank you i just want to clarify that
that's again out of our hands too it's
uh unfortunate
but
i guess hindsight is 2020 when you start
buying buildings
but you know when you put
all this money
into buying these properties it comes
from everywhere i mean you got state
monies you got county mondays ida
you all know about the governor's funds
and all of that and the coal people over
here there's a lot of people that's got
money in these places
and
they're just sitting there
how you get it back i don't know or how
you can
i don't know maybe we need to hold
people more accountable
some of the people that does have
something to do with this maybe we need
to hear from them
yes sir
i don't disagree with that at all so
that would be uh i'm sorry that
if we're going to have hard
conversations today we're going to have
hard conversations so that would be our
local ida board
that
kind of needs to give an account of what
we're going to look for in these
buildings and where we can go with that
and get it off our
backs nobody can be exempt
everybody's going to have to come to the
table we're all going to have to talk
if we don't get it together here it's
not going to happen
we have got
to do a better job of communication
you need to know everything about every
agency
how it works what's going on we don't
need any surprises
we need to have it all on the table
today again we have never been here
before
mr lester on those buildings
was that um
was one of those buildings did we miss
one of those buildings that was out here
the lingerie factory is that on there
did i miss that
is that
it's on there okay yes ma'am
yes ma'am and do we have a business in
that um
no was that the
not the dry cleaners but the car wash
supposed the car wash parts that
did not develop out that did not
materialize
no man
okay and um the bush building in saint
paul at four million dollars was taken
off the tax roll yes ma'am that did not
materialize no way
and see that's one of the things i
wanted to point out to rosa county
citizens
with the drop in tax between the north
of grumman and the coast severance
and what we're looking at on the budget
is about a four hundred thousand dollar
deficit
it wouldn't be fair for everybody said
and go point fingers at the board of
supervisors then we can't like i said
between what the state has implemented
what
the what has been taken off the tax
rolls as you've seen 177 000 that's half
of what i need
or they need so
but the point is is this
as as the commission revenue and and
and ms wallace had emphasized is you
know we've got to get these jobs back up
you know when it creates it it goes if
these properties are transferred back
into
taxpayers hands the property value that
four million dollars goes back on the
tax rolls that
that keeps coming back along with the
jobs
so and we don't want to pick on one
department or one issue we went through
some major things here lately some
pandemics we know these are tacked off
the tax rolls we've got these vacant
buildings that need jobs in them and be
to be filled and be done
but
also we have our job to do
you know what i'm saying we're not
skirting our job either so we've got
that's why we said they have cut taxes
we look at everything we look at every
dollar and then think the treasurer she
don't sleep most of the time so
our budget is great i mean
and it's it's it's developed with sound
principles sound financial principles
that are looked at every year by federal
state and local and those meet the
benchmarks each and every time
they some of them scratch their head
going how do you operate on this because
when people i talk to other counties in
various counties and i don't mean
to keep on elaborate
my maintenance department is three and a
half people
three and a half the rest are done with
community workers you go to any county
in our 95 in the state of virginia you
will not find it
i will guarantee it period
i guess the only little bright spot that
i see anywhere and it's just a little
bright spot
is the gas natural gas
from what i understand they're going to
drill more wells this year
because the price the price of gas has
gone up
and they are gonna it's gonna uptick a
little bit
how much i don't know
we don't know how much the federal
government will allow them to
but
that's the only thing that might come up
a little bit but that severance is so
little of course the value of the gas
wells too
a couple gas wells would really help out
we got about 200 000 per well on them as
far as value
nothing that a couple hundred jobs would
not fix
you know you know when i look at the
lost revenue for these buildings hundred
and thirty four thousand dollars
and then i looked around it's only the
real estate that's real that's real
estate only that's not the machining
tool that would come out of these right
right
but then you know if you ask people
about it you're going to scream covet
you know what we've all been through for
the last couple of years and you know
and i can't argue with that you know
it's just been a bad situation you can't
uh
you know supply chain issues and stuff
like that and that may have killed a
couple of projects
but you know we've got
regional jail 300 000 increase
minimum wage
you know between them both 80 000 yeah
and then we looking at this five percent
salary increase not to mention the two
percent vrs increase that was mandatory
yes that's the same thing as a two
percent raise because it's two percent
on the base gross right that is okay so
you know
these
real estate's just a small part of it
really or not small but it's a minor
part let's say
but but you have to do those things if
you're going to do economic development
you know yeah
yeah that's part of it it's just the
timing's bad timing bad timing bad time
and and this inflation i don't know when
it's going to ever end
i cringe when i go to the mailbox to
pick up my monthly report on my ira
and i won't tell you i about threw up
when i saw it this past month
it was bad
it is
and see we we sat and held conferences
and budget conferences and we talked
with every department every federal
state agency that we could
we sat and looked at these numbers we
have run these numbers we have walked
these numbers and alicia will tell you
that and i'm conservative and she'll
tell you i'm a little bit too relaxed on
them we're pushing these to the limit
at our 99.6
estimate we're pushing these limits to
to get solidarity get transparency when
when
we were working on the budget we bend on
this and it's like i said 95 counties
103 municipalities throughout the state
of virginia as big as firefax is is with
their tax base they're holding their
budget because this is a major impact
that you the rate of inflation is going
up faster than we can plug the numbers
as fast as i can set it and calculate
the fuel it's off by three grand in two
weeks
so
like randy said commissioner revenue
said
it's going to take all of us to get us
over this hunt
and and you know the board so far
there's some hard decisions
i guess i've been sitting
here longer than most of you
having served as commissioner revenue i
have never seen
this kind of a budget or this kind of a
time
that we've had to set here and really
look hard
i mean we've had some tough budgets in
the past
but now this time
especially with it it's still moving
upward all this stuff is i mean you
don't know where to set anything
from day to day it's unreal so
um i wish i had some good news for you
but
it's real so i can say
i see you have on here a listing of uh
a lot of the losses but
i don't see anywhere in here where
we have those potential projects like
the jonah project
and what we would incur from that and
some of the other development projects
that they're working on currently
and that's a good question david now
these have really been taken off they're
not proposed these are real numbers that
came off the tax rolls that those are
real
uh
we have not assessed project johnny yet
because it's got to be up in opera yeah
yeah
oh yeah
well i i think there's there's several
projects out there i think what dave is
getting to you know if we were two years
down the road it might be a completely
different story
uh but we've got to deal with present
day
and you know we've got to find a
solution to this
that's not going to kill everybody
i think we just need to
sit down and think about it and
see what alternatives are out there yeah
i got a question for you randy uh i
think i might have mentioned this to you
years ago when me and steve was going
through the
when we first got elected but
on the assessment
uh
would it be
reasonable
uh to look at any new development or new
properties and do
possibly a yearly assessment
internally on that as far as the rate of
what the home sells for and not just
the base rate
some counties have chosen to do that
it's like playing the stock market you
go in at the right time it might be all
right for a while but right now where
we're on behalf yeah where everything is
so unstable i think you jump in and you
have a housing everything falls out
i think you lose all right well i just
wanted to ask you to get your opinion on
that since we're talking
openly
then two you know like on the public
service like on the power plants
and all the public service
right now
the ratio
of course it's it's going upward and
it would advance it would be to our
advantage if we did it yearly if we had
a power plant like we used to have i
understand but here we are if we commit
to try to get those revenues from like
the power plant and the public service
and
that airplane is
a little bit shaky right now i don't
know what's going to happen but
well i was just thinking you know i mean
due to inflation yeah those i mean aep
they come out of the gate since their
stock hail they say well we're gonna
raise your power rates 14
they don't give you much notice and then
it's a battle between the state and then
i'm trying to get them to control power
utility costs
and i will tell you i'm working on
something right now that could be pretty
beneficial since you mentioned natural
gas
uh i've got a meeting with congressman
griffith on june 1st so
i i think if they would look at the
utilization what god's blessed us with
and for the consumer's
ability to be able to utilize
natural gas it would be a lot more
utilization a lot more taxable income
coming in and a lot more wells that
could be produced
you know here within the region of
southwest virginia and i know it ain't
an immediate fix
but it could be a long standard fix
because of
revenue that's you get on a continual
basis yeah it's a shame we can't utilize
the gas that's right here underneath i'm
with you brother
we've got to meet him with secretary of
trade in commerce and we're going to
have a heart heart discussion because
these natural gas companies are ready to
go out of the gate and if they want
even from the federal perspective i mean
they can shut down a pipeline and cause
fuel prices to go out the roof but we
have our own pipeline and i think we
need to be self-sufficient what god's
blessed us with here in our back door
and
and it would absolutely reduce power
utility costs it would cause a lot of
construction jobs and it would applied
sales we just talked about tv sales but
that was free money to go get a tv
and now you can't get people to work but
these appliance sales would be actual
sales to benefit the consumer
it would be crazy to shut down a power
plant after they built all those big
pipelines into that thing went through
all those properties and we got that
thing over there got it right here in
the in the gas fields and for them to
shut that down would be the craziest
thing
so we all need to i don't know that we
could do a thing but at least we can
talk to people let's keep it open that's
right
let's don't let it die without us
fighting for it well i know in my
district alone you know we produce
enough gas in
my district to service probably three or
four counties not counting buchanan
dickinson and tassel county i just never
could understand why we couldn't provide
it to the end user and the town 11 and
it comes right through town and you
can't get nobody i mean they won't hook
nobody up
well yeah they did run a section down in
the pruner edition down there but
i tried to get it when i lived down
below the methodist church down there
you could throw a rock and i could i
could stand my porch and throw a rock
with a good pitch and i could hit that
line but i couldn't get it to run him
down and get him to run it down there
because
they said maybe when the hospital hooks
it but they never did
but but at any rate they told me that a
lot of people are afraid of gas they're
scared you know especially the older
people i'm afraid of not having it
i'm with you
we all are
randy let me ask you a question
in this you know what the market's like
now for real estate houses are going
you know 20 25
more than what they're worth i've heard
houses selling for
more than what the asking price was
because there's such a low supply
to set the rate if a house sells for
250 000 wouldn't that be the value of
that particular house
i mean
does that mess your base up some way
what are you saying now
if i buy a house for 250 000
yeah wouldn't that be the value of that
house pretty much but you can't use that
why can't you use that they have to go
by the general reassessment what they
put on that house
when they did their studies
to set those ratios so it's all or none
he was based all on sales
four years ago right now
yeah so it's you can't do individual
houses not it's all all of them have to
be done
the same way that we can adjust those is
if it is a
we see an error
a definite i mean there's something
there that's actually wrong you can
identify
we can change it
but unless
you've got to leave it alone
they said that was the fair market value
and stays fair market value until you
reassess again yeah and again that's up
to you all how often you want to
reassess
but right now i believe when we're on
the top on the bubble i'm afraid we get
we'd get started and the bubble would
burst
and we would be hurting the housing
market drop and see one that's one of
the things that we discussed you know
you always look for the quick easy
answer
it
any in
annual assessments or semi you know
every year two years it will be okay
during a normal economic period that way
you get to normal adjustments rather
than a four to five year adjustment
but
one of the things that you do you tend
to do and a lot of counties do they'll
they'll kick the when it's high on the
bubble kick it up and i'll raise the
budget and then next year it goes down
then what are you going to do
you got you got to find a place to plug
this number or cut the services
so it's a double-edged sword so i'm
saying yes and in some areas we're
upside down in our house values and
that's unfortunate for our citizens and
i don't i don't like that i
i don't like to go to the equalization
board and certainly
we have been a time or two it's not a
real pleasant it is not real pleasant
and and and for the folks that are
sitting here today they don't want their
home to be reassessed i don't want mine
to be reassessed they're shaking their
heads so i think that's that is not that
is not considered to be anything i'm
interested in plus the reassessment's
just around the corner it's you you're
right
and even if he was two i think the the
rate of interest rates is going out by
the time we get the assessment done
it'll be so high that it's going to it's
going to put
the you know
it's going to suppress the market well
the supply and demand
that's true there is no supply of houses
i mean the house stays on the market
today and it's gone yeah
a lot of trouble
that troubles me because you know our
base
you know
i could thank my house down in charlotte
and it'd be worth three quarters of a
million dollars
you know but location you know it's up
here in southwest virginia and that's
why people from some of these other
areas are coming in buying that property
like this but
i'm really worried you know you've got
this casino that's coming in and you've
got the pure salmon
you've got some other things that are
working and i think our housing
situation is going to be a critical
issue here in the next two or three
years nobody's building houses and i
know why because materials are so high
and uh
i don't know it's just just it can't
build it's a bad situation you know
because if you used to build right now
and if you didn't sell it while the
market's at the hot
you'd you'd be stuck with yes
and you couldn't build the complex like
in multiple or townhouses
it's a high risk high risk
i think it's really going to be you know
i could see an influx of people coming
into russell county with the casino
40 minutes away yeah some of the people
that's buying property
they're from everywhere really
i'm buying
big price homes coming in yeah
well i think that's an issue we're going
to look at
for too long
yeah
so where does that leave us today
moving along
well i haven't let this i haven't the
treasurer hasn't spoke yet that's right
she's i'm not trying to say her to last
commissioner williams i'm not trying to
dismiss you i promise well
unless you have any more questions i'll
hand the microphone to her
thank you guys appreciate it thank you
and again i appreciate the job that you
do you got a hard job
just
stepping in big boy paints and try to do
it it's hard
i've been on boards i know
not this one but
thank you sir
before alicia speaks i'm i'm just going
to tell you something i'm i'm really
upset over this regional jail deal
i thought when bristol came became a
part of this that our cost was going
down it did
i mean it would be way worse if it
weren't for them yeah it would be a lot
worse if yes it would
it was a lot worse remember that five
percent that you're seeing
their cap costs like i was referring to
earlier their operational costs went up
so they're just pushing it to the
counties that's
that's the way it's gonna work
on the front end when we did this it was
eighty thousand dollar impact now and
it's three hundred thousand possible
i i think they're padding their budget
just a little bit and that may be the
truth i think i think their budget
they're inflating their budget up a
little bit just to make sure that
they're we may get that money back but
it didn't just a bit of good right now
you know
they're not gonna be any good and and
some of this too is is
changes that are going on at the state
level they're going to they're going to
implement a higher starting rate of pay
for these officers they're going to stop
the jails from being able to make any
profit on the inmates like on phone
calls and and stuff like that that you
know the income that they were used to
getting that now they're going to lose
well i think bristol kind of
i'll be honest with you i'm going to
speak it they made out they just set us
up i mean when the casino goes in
they're going to be a lot more rest
and they're going to flood at the jail
and then you know who's going we're
going to pay for it
i don't like it
it's it
and that is it
now what was supposed to happen through
the legislation to take care of one to
three big items of the casino revenues
in each county washington county is
supposed to build and now expand their
with this money and public safety is one
of them but of course you know they're
going to have to have deputies and
police service there that's going to
take the biggest chunk of their money to
be able to just have a police force in
place with 2 million people estimated to
come in annually so they're not going to
be able to build a jail and if you used
to build jail right now and it cost you
50 million dollars so i mean that's
that's a good cheap price right there
so
there's no easy answers and it ain't
like they're gaining the casino without
some major cost
it's going to have to work
well there's really not a lot that i can
say to add to this the numbers that
lonzo gave you on the general ledger
those are accurate numbers i pull those
numbers every day in hopes that
something's changed overnight that we've
got some money from somewhere else
uh
if anything he has been
a little bit liberal with his uh
estimations on the income
i wouldn't have
i wouldn't have put those income
uh figures up where he has i would have
brought him back a little bit because
i'm more conservative with that i
want to make sure that that's something
that i know that we're going to have
that we're going to collect
uh like i said our numbers are accurate
one thing that's really that
has really had me
worried is because we don't have a tax
rate
so we can't run the books we can't get
the tickets out and we can't get
payments in so
this is the time of year that we start
having cash flow problems and that's
just being honest with you we've got to
do something
soon
because if not then
you know
we're going to have to do something to
get some income in here
so that's another thing we have to look
at
[Music]
i've looked at the budget i've looked at
our numbers that we've collected i look
what we expend
and
you know we are really up against it as
to what we can cut now because we have
cut so much stuff and we we're right up
against that so it's going to really
take some uh hard work and some
creativity
and everybody working together to try to
come up with a solution to this i do not
envy you at all
uh
this is one of the hardest i've been
here now 12 years and this is one of the
hardest budgets that i've seen
to
i think there's things coming out that
in a few years time that that
things that y'all implemented that will
help but it's not going to help this
budget year
so anything that i can do to help you
any kind of reports i can do to help you
go over any of it with you i'll be glad
to meet with any of you anytime or run
any of the ports that you need
that this is one of going to be a hard
year for us
okay um
thank you thank you both
for taking the time and coming to speak
to us today
we tried to work around as many
schedules as we could to make sure that
that we were able to talk to you all so
i appreciate you taking the time
and looking at everything
um
suggestions mr lester
have all the numbers
and i'd like to hear from the budget
well i do not propose any tax increase
and it's a hard time it's a hard year
and just need to keep tightening our
belts and making cuts where we can
because it's level funding exactly
we've done every year
yes and we know that but where are those
cuts that we need to make
today
or
start thinking about today
ones
on the low side we're probably what 400
000
would be under here here's the numbers
and again as alicia had pointed out
i'm i'm pushing the revenue
i'm pushing the revenue
so
if i go into the numbers
sorry about that let me get down to here
that's the expenditures let's
let me go up
while you're moving um
what can we do to start implementing
the service
that ms mclaughlin has to do to do her
job
this is part of the process to get the
tax y'all got to set a tax rate
yes you have to have public hearing in
that well so we can do that today you
know okay so we're not getting see this
is not safe
this is a workshop so you know yes
please decide
let ms mclaughlin speak
have a tax rate please
randy's office
needs to be seeking for rainy but it
will take anywhere from seven to ten
years
to get the books right and with the
exemptions put in
if you get a tax rate set within the
next few weeks then we should be able to
meet the june 29
deadline
for those that can't hear on a
microphone june 6th is the date that
we've got to do this is that the tax
rate or the budget
yes ma'am so here we are let's
how do we do this miss patton
if if there were going to be an increase
then it has to be published in the
newspaper at least seven days to allow
the citizens to to appear and be heard
before that increase
so but it doesn't say anything about
just as far as a public hearing i know i
think you can kind of make it available
for the public to come and talk about
the budget but you only have to
advertise it if it's going to be an
increase
it ain't possible
so if it's not going to change
we can set it today
yeah i mean that's what it says it just
says at their at their meeting or called
meeting in june and actually it says
call meeting in june so it could be
after that but she's saying june 6 would
be too late
there's okay and one of the things under
the code virginia too now when the
board's supervisor sets the budget by
law under the code
you you have to have a balanced budget
so
here here's where we get to i need 380
thousand dollars to balance the budget
that's all i need to know
start digging yes i was where i was
going if you don't raise the taxes you
can sit there which we have polled in
the previous go ahead and release the
tax tickets but randy and alicia knows
that if you can give me 380 000 of line
item cuts or suggestions how you're
going to make this up without raising
taxes we can we can release
that's the that is the cons that's the
conservative side
no that does not include additional line
item of the regional jail the regional
jail is 300 000. so it's 680 if i add
them in so every other number has been
checked and verified except for the
regional jail because that will depend
on how it comes in
five percent uh includes the 11 to 12
the vrs the five percent that includes
all of it 680 with the regional jail uh
the vrs is almost shocking i think it it
that's what i was
that was um that's a 20 increase in
aggregate that was a 20 and increase and
that is something that we have to do so
it is by law you have to do it
that is what you see in their letter to
us or what they're proposing whether you
get the money back at the end of the
period or not
see that doesn't help you on the front
we have
yeah
here's the bottom line i need 680 000
where's the 680 000 going to come from
mr lester
you got the numbers and the budget
committee
well
and i know that i won't be able to walk
out the building after this but
neither the rest of us may either so
let's just face it and go on of course
you you've got the tax rate y'all know
y'all's ability to do that okay now if
we go into more cuts
now let me explain back to the salary
component which you know once you do
you're going to go back down that that
rabbit hole again and contact
forever
under the cut under what's been
presented under the current state budget
is this out of 1.5 percent salary
in the grocery tax
that is paying for the school's 5
increase there will be no impact to the
county from that the governor's picking
it up on that side on the school side so
the only line items that you have to
play with if of course is
the programs and the salaries right now
there's five percent built into the
budget you have to do the eleven dollar
you have to do the 12 and you have to do
the vrs
so the 5 is there but based off of what
the code is just like scott county and
everyone knows the turmoil that happened
last year is you can go from five to two
but you can't go below two percent they
can give a two to five percent
and remember what y'all gotta remember
this year and again like i said at the
beginning of the conversations is
the budget issues you're facing this
year
is it's got a it's got a snowball effect
it goes into next year you've got
another five percent to deal with so
whatever has to be done almost has to be
permanent there's no temporary fix here
so
the lineups that we've got so again
you're five percent you can you you've
got the autonomy to be able to do what
you need to do with that but you also
got like i said you got to consider the
school is getting five percent
so what does that save
us
even at the five percent if you take it
down to zero you're looking at two
hundred thirty thousand dollars
it's because you gotta remember the
constitution the biggest portion of our
budget is not i've only got three and a
half people so that you know this thing
hard to do
the constitution officers their races
come through the state which is picked
up
uh the sheriff's department
randy's office other than the ones this
county supported we have 100 where's vk
at
issue here
i think i got 168 employees
yes there's there's the range right now
today so
that's the ones that we've got to pick
up that's either in the constitution
officer that's county supported or fully
fun you know fully
compensated county employees and k and
kelly's back here saying library she
knows it all of them are counting
all your libraries your other support
systems
is it so again five percent to two
percent but you can't go below two
percent to
how certify difference does that make
if you take the 230 out of the
680 700 so you know
so
the increase is 298 plus the 230.
sorry about that he keep the wrong
number
i will mr lester yes ma'am um we're
having a side conversation which we
shouldn't do but
um
we're talking about the utility fees
that we proposed at one time and looked
at
and um we're being asked about that
now um
that was taken very harshly before
nobody liked that idea but um the
uh
it's not instant cash right now it's
it's it won't help us right this very
minute it takes how long to get this
implemented and collected well and
that's one of the things us and the
treasurer have looked at you know we've
said and looked at this on the disposal
fee depending upon what you set it at
it will take a while to implement first
you can't implement it until january
first i mean july the first sorry about
that you got three utility companies
that you got to deal with now and those
con those are done by under the code of
virginia are done by contractuals that
means they have to agree to that
and they do get a portion of your
whatever you collect out of the disposal
fee it's usually five percent that is
the minimum amount that you'll pay it
can go up to from five to ten percent of
your revenue base of what you collect
so
it will take in and
alicia and i've had this conversation
it's not a quick fix it it's a program
that you can implement but i it's like
the cigarette meal tax last year i said
i could not
financially estimate this because it's
not in place and and the state of
virginia is not going to let you
implement something that they don't have
real numbers on in the auditors or not
but it could be in i would give it four
months three to four months to be
conservative if you see anything else
treasure i mean i by the time we get the
etis and everything based in you're
talking three to four months before we
get that revenue flow back in place
you might short claim to everybody what
that is
the utility
it's a disposal fee that is in trash for
disposal yes and of course it it has
one of the things that was discussed
before on the disposal fee to increase
disposal fee was of course build new
facilities one number two get everything
within 15 minutes drive put you know
we're we're building one in sun getting
ready to put a unin home acre get
everybody within a 15 minute drive no
matter where you're at in 477 square
miles of rosa county
so
if
also one of the things that the board
had looked at is uniform hours
have one set schedule throughout the
week and extended hours so that's part
of the debit
funding goes in this has to go back to
by the code of virginia has to go back
to disposal and landfill fees it just
can't be used for
any various thing it's restricted
funding as we call it in the state of
virginia so it's got to be put back into
for those operations to take care of the
trucks the disposal the fees the irs the
employees
the landfill
so
i know that's a long answer but
from a cash flow perspective and you can
go up to six dollars it is a fee it's
added to your power bill
and
that would come in just when you pay
when you pay the power bill the utility
company collects it and then they'll
take their percentile for administration
and then they send you their net
residual so that's the way it works
is a monthly fee it is a monthly fee
thank you
is a monthly fee and it's added to it a
lot of counties do it it's just part of
the doing the business but another thing
it does is
one of the advantages it that the board
liked on not just extend the hours the
additional sites but it also
got rid of this business tax this
business fee that some people were
said they didn't have but one bag of
trash but they got a monthly fee this is
more transparent this goes out to
the ones that
not only on houses and it's only it only
applies to residential houses don't
apply at the barns or the light out and
you know utility if you got a small barn
or small shed or or
or something like that but it only
applies to residential and and and the
businesses like this but it it also
catches the renters right now we have 18
of the county is renters that's that's
based off the census and what we see in
in
in real estate so you're talking 15 to
18 percent are paying nothing they don't
pay nothing they don't pay no personal
property real estate they don't pay
anything in the county this is the way
to catch them
you see because it's tied to that power
bill once they come in and and hook up
that electricity in their name
it they it gets them they do pay their
share that is one way but right now
they 15 to 18 of the renters in the
county pace no real estate no personal
property nothing for the schools nothing
for sheriffs nothing in disposal
canneries or any other service they use
period
short version
but my numbers implementing that tax
for a full year it would generate
i looked i looked on some of the state
data and it shows about just shade less
than 11 000 households in russell county
10
975 is what it showed
in the last census there was 10 781 now
that's that's the census that's that's
close enough close that's close enough
but
at six dollars a month that generates
even after a five percent administrative
fee 750 000 a year
by my calculations
i'm wondering
if this wouldn't be something
yes it's kind of like buying a car
you're gonna pay it all up front you're
gonna pay it on a monthly basis you know
there's no good answer to this solution
but we're going to generate some revenue
somehow that would level you out that's
basically even if you implemented that
i've got a problem dumping
you know increasing real estate tax and
dumping it on the people who are vested
here in russell county
uh
the people in the land of people are
gonna be here they're gonna be here a
while you know
and uh some of the renters i didn't
realize was 18
15 20 but that that is a way that is a
way to
to
to spread that out
uh
this this would go towards resolving our
budget issues next year as well
right okay you're you're you're 380
with
the regional jail you're at 700 000. by
the time you do administration you're
breaking even
you know it by time you put it well
you're saying we can't implement it
until january
you know july july you do it in july it
takes three to four months but the cash
flow
well we we could be almost there
almost there it would break and not have
to raise real estate taxes you still got
to look at the five percent next year
and the rest
i'm seeing this this the closer we can
get
the leveling this budget out here
yeah
we have to deal with this year this year
and we can't deal with
this is kind of like a jump on next year
i guess
uh and hopefully maybe some of our
economic development
will pan out you know during that time
that'll generate some revenue for us
i'd prefer something like that over the
real estate tax
i feel
now katie where is the state on their
their budget any
any news there
three stalemate three billion they're
three billion dollars difference
well see that's the problem we don't
know what we're gonna
what our dilemma is or isn't yet
well you know the regional jail and the
five percent raise so i mean that's a
given even even if they and the only
thing that's been proposed even out of
the preliminary numbers
the constitution officers will tell you
so will the schools it's level funding
schools are in for me level funding
period that's that's
also the constitution officers unless
only constitution office
getting additional funding is the
sheriff's department and they're getting
only one
deputy additional
that's it
now that's what's been discussed so
there's not going to be much variance in
these numbers so it is like alicia said
and i'm we're pushing the envelope here
just um
and your five big taxes of keen and
queen of taxes i call them and we
discuss is your real estate your
personal property machine and tool
and your sales tax those are your
biggest that makes up the biggest
portion of your whole total budget
and your public service taxes
currently there's no charge whatsoever
for
trash none it's just right out of the
general world the the total taxpayers 80
of the taxpayers are taking care of 100
percent of the cost in the first budget
meeting that we had i told david when i
looked at it because it was like the
fourth third or fourth biggest item on
the
county's cost list
that we would eventually have
well the reason we talked about it is
because it was a level playing field
you're not penalizing people for
ownership of property
anybody gets a power bill has to
contribute back to the county and
i mean that's the reason we were looking
at it is just to be fair
not to penalize just
people with ownership or you have a lot
i didn't know we had 18 renters 15 to 18
you know a rental uh
but
you know
to look at it and to be fair with
how you treat people across the board i
mean you and you look at the percentages
of people don't pay any personal
property they don't pay any real estate
taxes and
and then you got these other people that
are basically keeping everybody else up
you know and what they're having to
expender and i don't want to i don't
want to
i'm just telling you i don't want to do
anything as far as raise taxes unless we
can look at ways that generate an income
and i don't think we have done that in
the past few years i don't think we've
worked hard enough except trying to
shut down what businesses we had an
opportunity to get here but i think we
need to fight to try to get more
business more income
and
help move these things along and partner
up with the ida if we have this list of
properties i think we need to put them
on the market pretty heavily and say hey
look
you know come to russell county and uh
we'll make you a real deal
i think it's it's time to to work with
these partners and people to
uh to bring these jobs in here we we had
a lot of success here in the beginning i
know covet
slapped us around a little bit but
they're still businesses
moving in and operating um i know the
workforce right now is hard to find
people to work but
i mean it's a big concern but we really
need to try to jump start the economy
and support these existing projects that
we have on the books right now and get
these whatever russ county needs to do
to finalize these
deals with the jonah project or whatever
we need to get it done
let's see whatever number
um
the tax incentive was proposed
the uh
the tax incentive is in place like the
performance agreements that the ida does
with
companies that come in to give them a
tax break it was 1.5 that tassel county
had proposed
it was to be paid the agreement was was
i think and rebecca was there
500 000 per year for 1.5 million now
i've we have got documentation i think
it was letter support or was it a
resolution katie from townsville county
but see that's only a literal support or
a resolution we have not received
anything from buchanan county because
you've got to remember that project
jonah
is a three bos
one agrees all three of us has got to
agree well i heard taslim but kenny
already passed we're the only ones hat
and see one of the things you got to
realize on the on the tax incentive it
only
is implemented or applicable
after the facility's built and the
people are in place working
yeah
so the uh
have you checked with lee have we talked
to lee with buchanan county with
i have not seen the resolution and y'all
gotta remember if you pass a resolution
the next board can do away with your
resolutions
that's why i was trying to figure out
something that was legally legal you
know you know for continuity i have not
asked lee for his but i'll i'll ask him
to give that to me i mean i've got i've
got what chase sent me and that's what
i'm going to be using because tazewell
was the one that initially made um the
that was one of the considerations that
they gave when it was going to be
located holy and tazel county and so i
just when chase brought that up to me i
asked him to send it to me that way i
could make it be as similar as what they
had already promised
thank you kenny
we've talked about you know losing
revenue from different things like
granny talked about
buying property
and uh
i know the bush building it would have
been we've been receiving taxes for that
but as we turn over to the staves uh
outfit we lost tax revenue right
dave leonard
the cattle market
that was supposed to been a project but
you're allowed it did
the fourth place with
him
his supposed materialized it didn't
now this
russell county uh manufacturer out here
i understand it's bomb now it's not
going to go hard i understand they're
going to try to rest that building down
because the concrete floor is not good
so uh
i don't know if we lose revenue that way
uh
it seemed like
i thought about people want to come in
here for a tax
break but then they don't materialize
but we lose taxes off the property that
they don't like they were going to come
in and
uh
materialize them
and that's a good point and one of the
things the idea has done and they work
with me and randy
that if a business comes in now it don't
get the big deal like it northrop
grumman or cgi does no longer they the
board this board stopped
they don't get that 100 tax break for
you know seven to ten years that don't
happen anymore so we do give them a tax
break but it's like a fifty percent and
they step we step it down to ten
i mean that's it quick and fast
so
but here is the thing
we got to get the jobs in place
the building sold
get her this year over the hump so
the utility fee is a fee
so and it is not a tax so
katie so therefore you know what that
means legally from the advertisement
perspective so your general public on
college
attack it's not a tax
it is a fee
now that that utility that goes on
every one of us every citizen
right or just that 18 percent you're
talking no it goes on everybody in a
residential when you get a utility bill
and y'all can look at this evening
when you pull it up it's got a
residential code on it it'll say 01 or
002 and they they each utility company
knows whether it's a barn or a light or
a building or a business or a
residential they only code
what we tell them to code for
residential businesses and get that out
of the way and they get you know some of
the business is going to love this
because i can tell you right now they're
paying higher than six dollars a month
they're going to love this but it sprays
the cost of costs that 80 that are
paying for it currently of russell
county citizens is that our 20 percent
we're going to have to pay their fire
share so we kind of lose the cost
but yeah but it's still adding it to the
ones that are already paying their fair
share too it does it does it's like it
exempts them if it left them out
that'd be different but it's right it's
not leaving them out it's adding to
there and that's what
and the board had proposed extending the
hours and additional signs and better
service to get up to these and a sticker
that way it's only russell county
citizens because you know no we seven
counties touch russell county borders
seven counties so we get trash from
cannon county dickson county
uh scott county
i mean keep going yes
so
and that was one of the things that was
proposed during this time but that's at
the board of supervisors but here is a
pleasure to just got to decide on the
fee but right now we got
680 to 700 000
so
we you know the line items that you do
in discretionary everything your child
donates only twenty six thousand dollars
so y'all i mean what are you going i
mean it's going to hard to be a pick of
a line item that can take care of these
kind of numbers if you didn't you would
have to go through multiple ones
so well we've officially scratched that
for the next two years as far as i can
see
and that's peanuts i agree yeah
it is it's literally 2016. yes yes ma'am
so tell me about the budget committee
tell me about the race program alicia
can you speak to that for me um
and you may not be able to and i don't
want to put you on the spot
but we're looking at we started out with
the
the board was giving 75 000
to
um the college which we all agree we
think it's a wonderful thing to educate
our youth but somehow it's exploded over
here on this end can you explain that
okay
uh it did start out at 75 000 but now
it's up to about 300 000.
um i'm not for sure
what expenses that was incurred there
more people i guess has enrolled than
what they had originally told you guys
that would enroll is that where the
number increase it came from lonzo
the
increase is uh
and that's our tour i'm going to just
give me just a second to pull up the
previous
numbers
i know when you started it it was 75 000
i think was the initial
cost and over the years it's just kept
going up
no these are oxygen numbers these are
always numbers
g5 cut it in half it is that g5 is
applicable this year yeah that's not
everyone that's not weak yeah so here
here's the numbers on the race program
see here's where it started out in
the first year start off 273 these are
actual expenditures i these two years
are
that's why i was approved for this year
and
let's see right
yes page 41.
yeah and when i said exploded um that's
no pun intended here that's the real
deal so
uh it was my understanding in 2019 when
we voted this in that we would we would
support it to the tune of about 75 and
it says right here in the first year of
1972
168 but then it went over here and it
went uh zoom way up there now
i thought we were just obligating 75 000
or whatever we voted on in 2019 which i
can't remember but that was in my head
help me out with that
okay
when the school proposed it to us they
they proposed they took all the school
the kids that were graduating to him and
i still got the document somewhere and i
can provide that to you and
um what they did they took all the
school children that uh
were graduating from all three high
schools
and they looked at the ones that were
for eligible for pell grants the ones
that were getting scholarships ones that
were not going to go to southwest it was
a wild formula wasn't it
so
they
they looked at it and they estimated
that the first year cost would be 75 000
so that's and i can i can provide that
to you so
now
as
the talk went on and
more kids started participating as you
can see now it's it's running about a
hundred and
what 40 000 a semester so
the kids will be going and then when the
pandemic hit we you know we thought it'd
go down but as you can see
now
as these two numbers 273 441 and ending
20 and uh 275 297 any 21 those those are
objective numbers those are being i
didn't verify by the auditors so alicia
will tell you
so what we had to start doing we had to
up the budget to take care of this and
that was not a pr it was not a problem
in previous years till this inflation is
hit and all these other things have been
down
so
that's at the pleasure of the board so
these are the real numbers that's
and g3 will take down the cost
but and i'm trying to get that from me
okay so air county we voted
to do the 75 000
or 77 169 or
some kind of funky formula that we've
got going on here
for this
um so what i'm about to say may may not
feel real good to everybody but
i am not in favor
of adding to uh a fee
or a tax
on someone's power bill at this time in
their life because everybody is crippled
so i'm going to say that if we can't cut
this budget down to zero if we have to
that's what we're going to have to do
that's my feelings
and i guess we don't have to come with
that today do we can we meet again think
about this
work it out work the numbers because i i
i'm just uh i'm not satisfied with
adding a five or a six dollar fee to my
mother's power bill or to my
mother-in-law's power bill or to any of
these people's power bill out here
because it's hard to make a power bill
and american electric power is not cheap
by the way
i'm on old dominion so i have a tiny bit
better power bill than what the majority
of the people in this county have
we tried to implement it before to be
prepared for such a time as this
okay i'm just not there now what's
before the board sue fasters today is
the tax rate not the budget so let's
let's separate that right real quick
so
and because the school has not presented
this the budget that's one of the first
things in the code virginia the school
board must present to us and they must
advertise and all that who knows in 2012
when we got the resolution
the state virginia done this they didn't
even set the budget up until the middle
of july i think it was july when the tim
yeah so the budget
y'all going to have to
trust our numbers and i know this is
hard it's hard while you're sitting here
and you may not get the budget until
july or august i mean we don't know
so
today you're setting the tax rates yes
and i know we're hammering this you got
700 yes and you got 700 000
that you we got to figure yes if you
want to keep the 5 increase the rest of
the line items are mandatory by laws so
you have no choice on those in the
regional jail if they bill you you have
to pay it by the structure code
i think that's kind of unfair but it's
it's in the agreement it's in the
contract whatever they bill for we've
got to pay it or if they don't they
penalize me they tried that once time
before that's alicia
well i would like to say i i appreciate
you randy and alicia for coming i'm a
little concerned
uh
while the school system's not here in
this meeting because they're level
funding they're just taken care of they
don't need any additional funds
how much over the requirement
if you take
what is uh above the rl
the required local effort
and the debt load there's about a
hundred thousand dollars there
give or take and now that was last year
so that's all i can estimate on so we're
at 200 looking for 200 then
oh you you know you're a 680.
so there's no easy fixture and it may be
and i'm throwing this out here at the
pleasure of the board like i said i may
not walk out the door but you know you
know it may be a fee it may be a cut
maybe do both i don't i'm just throwing
y'all are asking for suggestions and i'm
trying to give you suggestions but these
numbers that we've got to me and alicia
have said and looked and sweated and and
lost sleep over
they're solid
tax rate at the current tax rate right
now
and we'll address the either the cuts or
the
fees or taxed or you know
uh that's not gonna make sure that it's
not gonna be real estate tax
well it seems to me that's the only
thing we can do well when once you set
the tax rate today which you can do
if it stays the same
and i would make the most i will make
the motion that we
set the tax rates at the same rate
as they are now for all of them real
estate mobile home personal second
machine tools and merchants capital
well it just took us an hour and a half
to get there didn't it but you all had
to have all the information
so we need to have another job
okay i have a motion and two seconds on
the floor um any just any further
discussion within this board
i would like to ask
if we do that
set the tax rate the same goes how's
that going to help our shulk
do that so that's okay you're going to
you're going to figure out how we're
going to do this we've we've all
discussed freely
about what we're doing
all right i've got a motion and a second
all in favor
and i'm an eye any opposed
motion carries
you got a tax rate you got a tax rate
thank you guys go do the books
thank you both for coming
thank you alicia now she can sleep
you're not going to sleep
ma'am chair board supervisors members
y'all have any more questions on the
budget i mean i love talking numbers
and um so while we're on this we need to
work on another work session is that
amenable with everyone so get your
calendars out well
we don't have to have a public hearing
now do we no no okay no so
for the budget
yeah see you got a continued meeting on
the 16th at three o'clock so you can
start to work the budget on it yes
you got a workshop on the 16th at three
o'clock so you can start to work on
these line items
is that going to give us that's already
a plan so we don't have to plan anything
it's already advertised and done and
advertised yes ma'am so everyone is
confident that we can reach
an agreement to get us down to a budget
in a week
all right
make the recommendation today
i agree i'm i'm going to ask the budget
committee to come back with heavy some
heavy recommendations heavy cuts
bring it the tax rate says
that's what it's going to take so so
make it happen so make it happen it's
got to be big numbers okay um any more
from the board about the budget at all
are we good to go i'll entertain a
motion to uh adjourn i'll make that
motion
i got two okay thank you got a second
all in favor
thank you
sorry