Residents upset at Franklin County tax increase

Things got a little testy at Tuesday’s public budget hearing.

County commissioners tentatively approved next year’s 41 million dollar budget but not without hearing from a number of taxpayers first.

Local taxpayers will cover pay for about 9 and a half million dollars of the county budget with their property taxes that’s a little more than a half million dollars more than last year.

It comes out to about a 5.6 percent tax increase.

But the Concerned Citizens of Franklin County organization said the increase is actually more substantial.

The county is saving about 360 thousand dollars this year because of changes in the state retirement rules, and the Concerned Citizens said that if the county would just hold its spending to last year’s levels taxpayers would be getting a tax cut this year instead of a half million dollar increase.

County commissioners, however, say the argument is not realistic.

The board has been taking money from various funds for the past few years just to keep up the services it provides and this year it has to replenish some of those funds.

Commissioners also pointed out that even with the increase the local portion of the county budget is still at 2004 levels and about 6 million dollars less than just 5 years ago.

The sheriff’s department budget was also a major issue of contention.

Citizens questioned whether a county of about 10 thousand people needed a sheriff’s office with 75 workers and a cost of over 4 million dollars a year.

They argued that per capita our sheriff’s office costs well more than neighboring counties, but undersheriff Joel Norred said that comparison is not fair.

While Franklin County may only have about 10 thousand residents its visiting population can easily double that – and the size of the county alone requires more deputies than many other areas with more full time residents.

In the end the budget was approved on a 4 to 1 vote with district 1 commissioner Pinki Jackel voting against it.

Taxpayers will get one more chance to comment on the budget before it takes effect.

The county’s final public budget hearing will be held on September the 19^th.

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