PIKE: County Board looking for ways to tighten its belt
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By DAVID CAMPHOUSE
Submitted photo
This image shows the view available to viewers of the Pike County Board’s livestream, which broadcast the Board’s regular December meeting. New Board President Reta Hoskin said that she intends to continue livestreaming County Board meetings to increase transparency and public awareness of County Board activities. The streamed video of December’s meeting can be found at the County’s Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1CpLqTtaY6/
At its Monday, December 23, regular monthly meeting, the Pike County Board voted to throw out the tax levy that had been approved by the body in November.
The action was made necessary, because the levy previously approved for the year warranted a “Truth in Taxation” hearing. But that hearing was never scheduled, and it never took place.
A “Truth in Taxation” hearing is required when a taxing body raises a levy by more than 5% from one year to the next.
According to new Pike County Board President Reta Hoskin, the levy that had previously been approved represents an increase of 22%.
Because the County Board did not hold a “Truth in Taxation” hearing, the Board, at Monday’s meeting, passed an amended levy of 105% of last year’s levy.
Hoskin said that the difference between the levy approved in November and the amended levy passed in December is $485,000 – meaning that the board will need to find ways to trim a significant amount from the county’s previously approved budget.
“My thought was to re-do the tax levy, because I didn’t want to raise taxes that much, and, after talking to other members of the board, there wasn’t a consensus from the board to raise taxes that much,” Hoskin said.
“The new tax levy proposal – this gets us down to the 105% we are allowed by law.”
The amended, lower levy was approved at last Monday’s meeting, with only Board Member Jim Sheppard voting against the amended levy.
Sheppard took issue with the cuts that would be necessary to get the levy back down to the 105% mark.
“To cut that much they are going to cut from the Health Department and cut services to residents,” Sheppard said. “And they’re going to cut into the liability insurance fund.”
Now that a lower, amended levy has been passed by the Board, Hoskin said that the next set of tasks for the Board is to look for cuts that can be made to the budget.
“It’s our plan to start looking at the budgets we passed to see what we can do,” Hoskin said.
David Camphouse/Pike Press
Nicole McDonald was approved at last Monday’s regular Pike County Board meeting as Pike County’s new Supervisor of Assessors. McDonald fills the position left vacant by the resignation of Cindy Shaw. McDonald starts in the position in January.
Hoskin made the point at the December meeting that the Board could have still held the “Truth in Taxation” hearing after it was realized that the hearing was necessary, but Hoskin said that she felt the correct course of action was to cut the levy back to 105% of last year’s levy.
“I take exception to the idea that the ball has been dropped,” Hoskin said. “I made the decision to not have the truth in taxation hearing. Even with the 22% increase, there was nothing new that the budget would do for taxpayers. It wasn’t providing any new service or improving services. We have to look at why our spending is going up.”
Also approved at December’s County Board meeting was the resignation of Supervisor of Assessors Cindy Shaw and the appointment of Shaw’s replacement, Nicole McDonald.
Hoskin said that McDonald has extensive experience in the Assessor’s office and possesses the requisite credentialing to hold the post of Supervisor of Assessors.
“She’s been in that office for years,” Hoskin said. “I would say 10 years at least. There is a state test that you have to pass to hold the position, and she has taken and passed that test.”
Also of note is that the December County Board meeting was livestreamed and available to be viewed by residents on Facebook.
Hoskin credited her predecessor for initially starting to livestream meetings, and Hoskin said she intends to continue to livestream the meetings.
“I think the more that residents and taxpayers understand and monitor what the county government is doing, the better,” Hoskin said. “It’s something Andy started and that we definitely want to continue. It really helps with the transparency of what’s going on.”
The streamed video of December’s meeting can be found at the County’s Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1CpLqTtaY6/.
It was also reported at the December meeting that the firm performing the County’s financial audits for the last three years is planning to present a report on its progress at the Board’s January meeting. In addition, the firm plans to have a preliminary report of the 2021 audit completed by the end of January.
