Jarboe presents plan to cut budget to trim tax rate

Other commissioners reject proposals

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

On Tuesday, Jarboe presented a mix of some old and new ideas in cuts, which were soundly rejected by the rest of the board.

Jarboe has been advocating abiding to the constant yield rate, a formula used by the state to calculate how much the property tax rate would need to be lowered to bring in the same amount of county revenue to counteract rising assessments.

Using the constant yield rate would reduce the new 2010 budget by $6.9 million and produce an average tax savings to residential property owners of $156 for the year.

Jarboe suggested the merging of some county departments and the elimination of some department managers.

He once again suggested merging land use and growth management into economic and community development, the department of public safety into the sheriff's office, and the department of aging into the human services department.

He suggested giving $3 million in leftover funds that are programmed to offset state cuts in fiscal 2012 back to taxpayers.

He also suggested not building a new Leonardtown library.

Instead, a high-tech wing could be added to the existing building, saving $3.5 million in building costs, he said, which would save $25,000 annually in debt service over the next 20 years.

"If we continue to be conservative, we can have constant yield," Jarboe said. "I'm just putting those recommendations on the table for the board to think about and consider."

Merging the county agencies would save $100,000 each, he said.

"The problem is those department heads have contracts," Raley said. Those would have to be bought out if terminated.

Raley asked how Jarboe would resolve the contract's costs.

"That's a challenge. You're going to have to basically deal with that," Jarboe said.

Commission President Francis Jack Russell (D) asked if another public hearing would be needed based on Jarboe's recommendations. He also asked how he came to make these recommendations.

"I had a couple of other people I shared my ideas with," Jarboe said.

Jarboe is pictured with Kenneth F. Boothe and Rich Johnson on the cover of this week's St. Mary's Today, for which Jarboe writes a column.

Russell told Jarboe he was bringing in his ideas "five minutes to 12 before the clock turns," as the budget has to be finalized by the end of May.

Russell took issue with "bringing this to the table and not having shared it with the rest of us," he said. There should have been more time to discuss the items "without just dropping this on us five minutes to 12."

He also said of the $156 in potential property tax savings, "That comes to 43 cents a day."

Commissioner Thomas A. Mattingly Sr. (D) told Jarboe, "I have concerns with all of the recommendations you just mentioned," because of their use of the fund balance. The recommendations he said were already posted "in a newspaper, or supposedly a newspaper" before they were presented to the commissioners Tuesday.

"I think we've assembled a good structure in county government," he said, and the sheriff has not expressed an interest to him in taking over the department of public safety.

Commissioner Kenny Dement (R) said he personally supported the constant yield rate, but said, "You can't do it in the last hour. I think there should have been more communication."

He said he is refinancing his home mortgage and said of the potential property tax savings, "What is this $150 going to do for me and my mortgage?

"We cannot cut services. People expect services today," he said.

Budget work continued into Tuesday afternoon.

jbabcock@somdnews.com