Overton County will not see a property tax increase this year as officials considered Monday night utilizing reserve funds to cover a projected budget deficit.
The current county fund balance sits at $1.4 million. District 2 County Commissioner Darwin Clark said the county is currently preparing the budget for the upcoming fiscal year while reviewing the costs of salary and cost-of-living increases.
“People just don’t like to see taxes go up,” Clark said. “But if you’re going to operate anything, just like with your home, you’ve got to raise income. You’re going to have to have more income coming in to pay the bills that you’re spending. And the only thing we can do as commissioners is try to hold everybody’s feet to the fire and make sure they don’t spend no more than what they’ve got budgeted.”
Clark said the sheriff’s office budget is $3.5 million and the highway department is approximately $3 million. Clark said the school system budget, which the commission will review later this week, will likely be around $20 million.
“If you’re going to operate anything, just well with your home, you’ve got to raise income,” Clark said. “You’re going to have to have more income coming in to pay the bills that you’re, that you’re spending.”
Clark said the county is projected to have $3.1 million in its fund balance for the next year. Clark said state law requires the county to maintain at least three months worth of expenditures in that reserve.
Two years ago, the county raised taxes for the first time in at least ten years. Clark said he admits that may have been a mistake.
“I think we made a mistake by not raising them a little bit at a time back during that time,” Clark said. “But we were here and we knew how people were having a hard time with their money, so we just didn’t raise taxes. Anytime you have growth like we’re having here in Overton County it’s hard to make people understand that you know, you got to raise taxes to stay up with the growth and the cost of what it takes to provide these services.”
Clark said the budget looks good for the coming year, but next year’s budget cycle looks tight.
“It’s going to be tight,” Clark said. “Everybody’s going to have to be real frugal. And of course I’m frugal anyway. I’m real conservative. I believe saving money where we can save it.”
