Cannon County Commissioners have approved a budget for the current fiscal year. The action came just after 10:30 Tuesday night following a public hearing for the proposed budget. The budget approved was however slightly smaller than the one presented earlier.
The evening started with an address from the Deputy Comptroller for the State Jason Mumpower. Mumpower told the commissioners he had been where they are now, as a former member of an elected body. As commissioners, if they only have one job that would be to approve a balanced budget for the county. As of last night, 94 counties had approved budgets for the current fiscal year. Cannon County was the only county in the state to not have an approved budget.
The deputy comptroller went on to say, “in the past few days, many individuals have forwarded to me comments on social media stating that nothing would happen if the county missed its deadline of passing a budget by the end of the month. I am here tonight to promise you, without a balanced budget as of 12:01am September 1st, the Comptroller’s office will takeover the finances of Cannon County.”
The Deputy Comptroller and members of his staff answered questions from members of the commission and members of the audience.
During the public hearing segment of the meeting, seventeen persons spoke to the commissioners. Several spoke of their displeasure with the handling of the budget and talk of a tax increase. Several spoke in favor of funding for the library. Many spoke in favor of the ambulance service. A few suggested changing the ambulance service over to a private provider.
Following the public hearing, commissioners began to address the budget and review any possibility of reducing the funding levels.
Over the next few hours, almost all departments were discussed and a variety of variations were presented for consideration. At the beginning of the evening, the proposed budget would generate an increase of the property tax rate by sixteen cents.
The final breakout of the spending
General Fund 1.45
Solid Waste / Sanitation 0 .08
General Purpose School 0.685
General Debt Service 0.04
Ambulance Service 0.2050
Total 2.46
This is $2.46 taxed on each $100.00 of taxable property in the county. The rate is an eight cent increase of last year’s rate of $2.3839.
Note: This story incorrectly listed the rate as 2.42 for a limited time, we are sorry for the mistake and should never write news stories at 2:00am