The Jones County Board of Commissioners decided at their final budget workshop last week not to raise taxes this year.

Those attending the first public budget meetings Aug. 21 at 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. may be pleasantly surprised to find that the advertised one-half mill increase has been reduced to zero.

The meetings will take place in the Charlotte Wilson conference room at the Government Center. The third and final public hearing will take place at 6 p.m. Aug. 28, and following the hearing, the commissioners will formally set the tax rate.

County Administrator Mike Underwood began the Aug. 12 budget workshop at the same place the commissioners left the tax increase at their Aug. 8 meeting, during which the proposed rate was reduced from one mill to a one-half mill increase. He said with some additional cuts the amount to be taken from the General Fund to balance the budget would be $534,873.

Underwood said department heads made additional cuts per his request, and the bottom line is they are going to have to be doing more in their departments with less.

Commissioner Bert Liston asked how much would be needed to take from fund balance to reduce the tax increase to zero.

Commissioner Larry Childs also said he would support taking more money from the fund balance because he is concerned that property owners are going to lose the Homestead Tax exemption, which will mean they will pay $250 more on their tax bills.

Underwood said the elimination of the exemption would reduce the county’s revenues by $750,000. He said it is his understanding that no decision will be made about the exemption until the General Assembly is back in session in January.

“If it is not funded, that would mean you will bill the homeowner or absorb it,” he said.

Gault said he thinks the absorbing days are over.

“If we are dipping into the fund balance, it won’t be there,” he said.

Gault said he is not in favor of taking the additional money from the fund balance because it will put the county further behind.

“This is the time of year we are eating into fund balance,” Underwood commented.

Liston asked if anyone is against taking enough money from the fund balance to keep from increasing taxes. Childs said he is for it, and Gault said he is against it.

Underwood told the commissioners if they decide to use additional fund balance, it will be important to watch expenditures closely for the entire year.

Gault said another problem is that the county may lose the timber tax. He said large timber companies can be placed into conservation tracts.

“That’s what is coming down the road,” he said.

Underwood said the timber funds in the budget are based on the assessed value, but the revenue from last year is $870.

“There is no way that’s all the timber that was cut in Jones County,” he said.

County Clerk Leila Land said it is possible to follow up when road permits are issued to timber companies for the purpose of cutting timber.

“We talked about doing that last year, and that’s where it ended,” Childs said.

Commissioner Mell Merritt said the county needs to cut services or contract services out.

“On a smaller scale, the county has contracted for grass cutting—that’s worked out pretty well,” he said.

Childs said if the commissioners can get through this year, they will have next year to look harder at ways to cut expenses.

“We don’t want to cut employees, but we can if we have to. That’s under our umbrella; the department heads aren’t going to do it,” he said.

Childs said if the additional money is taken from fund balance, the commissioners will have to be prepared to make drastic cuts next year, otherwise they will need to take twice as much then.

“We need to cut expenses and build the fund balance back up to where it was,” he reiterated.

Childs said the county has talked about instituting business licenses, but that will not be additional revenue.

“It will be a tracking tool,” he said.

Underwood agreed business licenses will not be a revenue generator, but he said it can be an economic development tool. He said it also helps the sheriff’s department to know what kind of businesses are in Jones County.

Merritt said he will not support a tax increase, and Childs said he agreed. Childs asked Liston and he said he also agreed.

“That’s three votes, that’s it,” he stated.

Chairman Preston Hawkins asked the commissioners to support a $4,000 expense limit for each commissioner. Merritt said he agreed, but he does not want to shortchange the new commissioners who will need to go through training for their certification.

The current budget including travel expenses and training equaled $29,900. After a lengthy discussion, it was agreed by consensus to reduce that amount from almost $6,000 per commissioner to $4,500, a savings of $7,400.

Hawkins asked to go on record that he does not want to raise taxes, but he is worried about taking all the money from fund balance.

Childs said he does not like the idea of using fund balance either.

“But if we do it this year, it will give us next year to see what services we can cut,” he said. “Next year we can take out the matching funds for grants, and public works is going to take a beating if something doesn’t change.”