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Aug. 25, 2011
The Garrett County commissioners are already preparing for the Fiscal Year 2013 budget and beyond, though FY 2012 is less than 2 months old. They held five brief public hearings Tuesday afternoon on proposed increases for recordation, admissions and amusement, hotel rental, title/leasehold interest transfers, and overdue property taxes.
"I don't want you to believe that it's a done deal," Commissioner Jim Raley said about raising taxes. "I want you to know that we're here to listen."
About 30 people attended the hearings, primarily members of the Garrett County Chamber of Commerce.
Commission chair Gregan Crawford stressed the hearings were mainly to garner information and to prepare for the future, especially the General Assembly session in January 2012. Three of the five taxes would require legislation in order for the commissioners to be able to increase them, if needed, in the future.
"2013 will probably be a far greater challenge to the county, budgetwise, than 2012 was," Crawford said.
He indicated that the county may see a drop in property assessments, there may be a shift in teacher pension obligation from the state to the county, and there will be less state funding for education. He noted that the county's capital projects and employee roster have already been greatly reduced.
"We're trying to plan for the worst, but are hoping for the best," Crawford said. "I don't know whether we're going to change any of the rates or not, but adjusting tax rates is never popular, especially in recessionary times. I'm still not convinced it's the correct pathway at this point. Raising taxes should only be as the last resort."
He added that it is hard to ask people to pay more taxes when the county needs to continue to look internally to see what it can do to raise revenue and trim expenses.
With that in mind, the commissioners will form an Efficiency Task Force to find ways to save money, yet maintain services.
More here.
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