Habersham County’s budget process is near the finish line, even as it is just getting out of the starting blocks.
July 1 comes at the same time every year, and yet, we have heard the same speech at this time in recent years about the tax assessor’s office not getting the digest to the county in due time.
Why?
Every year is 365 days long, and the process should take the same amount. Beginning the process on time and ending it on time is imperative.
Monday was the first reading of the budget, and while the spending and goals were clearly laid out by county CFO Tim Sims, there are still some holes in the entire budget process as it relates to its presentation. In fairness, much of that blame is on the tax assessor’s office.
• There was no comment by any of the commissioners about the budget process at Monday’s meeting. The meeting was long, but the public needs to hear the budget comments from their commissioners. Vice-Chairman Bruce Harkness said he had several concerns and he would email Sims about them. Hearing commissioners’ concerns is the foundation of those meetings.
The rest of the commissioners kept quiet about it, which may be even more concerning.
• We reported last week the commissioners believe there will be no need for a millage rate increase this year. However, this was not mentioned or discussed in their monthly meeting Monday.
• As Sims presented the budget numbers, he once again mentioned Habersham County is one of four counties who give the Local Option Sales Tax (LOST) to the school system. Sims also noted the alcohol tax goes to the school system.
We see no point in belaboring this point every year. LOST has gone to our school system for the last four decades when Habersham’s electorate voted it in. Frankly, It’s going to continue to be that way unless our community supports a change and that would include legislative action by Sen. Bo Hatchett, Rep. Chris Irwin and Rep. Victor Anderson.
The second reading of the budget is Monday, June 26, at 6 p.m. Hopefully, with the budget being the only topic of the meeting, the commission will shed more light on where we are going with our tax dollars. Then again, no one spoke in the public comment portion of Monday’s meeting, so if you want your say, Monday is the time.