Despite unanimously approving the 2024-25 budget earlier this month, the Sampson County Board of Commissioners ultimately adopted the plan in a 4-1 vote Tuesday morning after one commissioner proposed a last-minute amendment to the budget ordinance, asking for a boost in fire tax rates across the county.
Commissioner Allen McLamb made that motion, requesting an increase of 1 cent to the proposed fire tax rates, which were modified toward revenue neutral as part of the 2024-25 fiscal plan along with other rates, including the property tax rate.
The amendment received discussion, but ultimately died on the table for lack of a second. A motion to adopt the budget ordinance as drafted following the budget’s tentative approval on June 13 was made by Chairman Jerol Kivett, seconded and approved in a 4-1 vote, with McLamb dissenting. McLamb previously voted in favor of the budget in the 5-0 unanimous vote on June 13.
“It’s hard for me to vote for this budget with all the friends and the family and all I’ve got in (fire service),” said McLamb, saying it was a topic “on his heart” recently. “Seeing the money that is being spent, and wanting to make sure they are looked after like I feel they should be, so they will be able to look after us.”
He touted the unselfish nature of volunteer firefighters, which other commissioners agreed with, while maintaining a sort of “can of worms” situation that would arise should those departments be treated differently than others that could use a similar boost.
“When we look at the whole budget, there are several other departments that are in dire need — our Social Services, our paramedics, school systems,” said Commissioner Sue Lee. “If we pick out one and treat them differently, I’m afraid of the unintended consequences that would occur. I just don’t see that we can take one department — as much as we feel they need it, and we know they need it — and treat them differently.”
The 2024-25 Sampson County budget includes no proposed tax rate hike, while the tax rate itself is proposed to drop by 20 cents from 82.5 cents to 62.5 cents per $100 valuation, deemed the revenue-neutral rate amid a countywide revaluation this year that saw property values spike since the last appraisal in 2019.
Based on revenue-neutral calculations, fire tax rates for districts in Sampson — the topic of much discussion leading up to the budget’s approval — as well as the Supplemental Current Expense Tax for the Clinton City Schools were among those adjusted according to the revenue-neutral tax rate. That revenue-neutral rate is the rate that is estimated to produce revenue for the next fiscal year equal to the revenue for the fiscal year prior to revaluation if no reappraisal had occurred.
While the county property tax rate was rounded down — from 62.9 to 62.5 cents — those rates for fire departments and schools were adjusted upward to the nearest half cent.
Under the 2024-25 budget, the fire tax rates were modified to the revenue-neutral rate, some dropping 2-3 cents (many of the larger departments have been at 10 cents), however those new rates are projected to generate revenues higher than what was requested for the coming budget year, county officials said. The revenue-neutral rates for fire tax districts are expected to produce revenue of $4,280,723 across the board in 2024-25, a $467,323 increase over the $3,813,400 in revenues projected from the district tax requested.
Fire officials urged county leaders in recent weeks to keep those rates as they have been, and not lower them, despite the lower rates being closer to revenue-neutral. They said the additional revenue that would come as a result is necessary to stay operational, citing needed equipment replacement and training requirements and, in some cases, the need to add paid staff to ensure coverage.
“If we left it alone, it would be at 10 cents, and I agree that would be a large windfall,” said McLamb. “I also know that we will have to address it going forward and talk about very firmly. Whether we approve or don’t approve what I put forward today, it’s something we’re going to have to start looking at, because it’s changing. The money is just not there to keep the fire departments running.”
McLamb offered the 1 cent across-the-board amendment to the newly-proposed fire tax rates.
“The work the fire departments do is invaluable,” said Kivett. “You can’t put a price on it — it would be a big amount of money if the county tried to do this on their own. I don’t disagree that more money would be good, however we have gone into our fund balance, which is no different than a savings account. We went into our savings account to fund our budget. The fire departments gave us a budget, and we gave them more than they asked for, and now they’re wanting to increase it in addition to that.”
He noted that upon the property revaluation, the rates are modified accordingly based on the newly appraised property values. When appraised values spike as they did in Sampson — Kivett cited a 42% increase — tax rates are adjusted so that taxpayers are not taxed into oblivion. Keeping the fire tax rates as is would be a tax hike, the chairman said.
“That’s a tax increase,” he remarked. “I’m just opposed to adding more on the back of the taxpayers at this time. I’m opposed to the amendment.”
McLamb felt that setting those fire tax rates should be “given back to the people.” County administration clarified that North Carolina state statute mandates that tax rates are set by the county commissioners. It has never been delegated to the people. There are advisory boards and fire commissions that recommend rates. The final say is with the commissioners.
“It’s not that we don’t care, or that we don’t think the money is needed,” said Commissioner Lethia Lee. “A lot of people just can’t afford a tax increase at this time.”
“It’s true that each fire (department) needs something, but if you put the tax there and next year we have to go into our funds again, it’s not going to be good for us as a county,” Commissioner Thaddeus Godwin added.
The approved budget was ultimately untouched from County Manager Ed Causey’s initial May 20 presentation outside of modifications by the board during the June 13 special session to proposed cost of living adjustments (COLA) and wellness leave for staff — cutting a proposed COLA in half from 3% to 1.5% and removing two newly-introduced wellness leave days for all staffers.
The COLA is to take effect Jan. 1, 2025. A 1.5% COLA means an increase of $265,574, as opposed to the $531,147 initially proposed. Additionally, an allocation of $747,700 was recommended to assist employees in reaching the midpoint of their salary scale.
The 2024-25 proposed general fund totals $86,085,496, which is roughly $6.8 million over the adopted 2023-24 general fund of $79,313,859 — an 8.5% increase. The 2023-24 adopted budget was nearly 12% higher than the 2022-23 adopted budget.
The 2024-25 plan includes $12 million in fund balance to balance the budget. Lapsed salaries and benefits are expected to cover approximately $1.9 million of this deficit, leaving the roughly $10 million that will have to be expended from the rainy day funds.
The proposed budget was already cut by 7.5% prior to being presented by Causey, with roughly $86 million in proposed general fund expenditures in the 2024-25 recommended budget, compared to $93 million in initial departmental requests.
“With the capital needs that (Clinton City Schools) has, you can make a similar argument for not changing their (Supplemental Current Expense Tax) to the revenue-neutral rate,” Causey stated earlier this month. “We agree that everybody has a wide range of concerns. We’re not discounting anybody —not any fire department, city schools, county schools, anybody. What we have tried to do with this whole process is try to be consistent with what you’re doing across the board.”
Causey previously said the county could expend $10 million and still be in good shape, but conceded that luxury might be a one-time occurrence, with $37 million in fund balance, $24 million of which is unassigned. He said the board would have to take a hard look in the coming year at all operations.
“We, as commissioners, have work to do,” said Godwin. “When we pass this budget, we have to get busy. How do we adjust? And now we have a year to do it.”
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