Commissioners work budget numbers to accomplish pay raises

As the end of fiscal year 2024 approaches, county budget plans for FY 2025 are well underway. Limestone County commissioners continued budget considerations during their regular meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 13, adding in key components like the certified property tax valuations and tax rate calculations to the equation.
Tax Assessor-Collector Stacy Hall presented the 2024 Certified Appraisal Values and explained tax rate calculation.
As formulated by the Appraisal District, the 2024 Taxable Property Values in the county equate to $2,794,347,551, an increase from last year of $216,053,075.
Hall also broke down the tax rate calculation for 2024, per $100 valuation:

No new revenue tax rate
$0.5480
Voter approval rate (VAR)
$0.5759
VAR adjusted for Unused Increment Rate
$0.6290
Current tax rate (2023-2024)
$0.5970

Hall explained the VAR adjusted for unused increment rate is a new inclusion this year, which is the highest rate the county could adopt to avoid a rollback election.
“In looking at the budget this year, although we’ve had some other expenses and we’re looking at trying to get some people’s living pay up, I would be comfortable saying that we should be able to at least reduce the rate by 1 cent,” Duncan said. Commissioners echoed their agreement.
As discussed previously, Duncan and the commissioners agreed to build a 3% cost-of-living increase for all county employees into the budget.
On top of the 3% raise across the board, Duncan has planned an additional raise for Road and Bridge employees. Road and Bridge Administrator James Trantham expressed gratitude for the planned raises and stated he’s interested in keeping on some of the seasonal employees on a part-time basis.
Although the “part-time full-time” wording is confusing, Goodman chimed in the classification of part-time limits the length of time an employee can work for the county to one year, while the part-time full-time classification allows such employees to receive retirement benefits and serve as many years as needed.
County Sheriff Murray Agnew and Duncan disagreed about the best use of SB22 funds.
Agnew explained that more than $227,000 of the $350,000 state allocation is earmarked for pay raises to deputies and jailers. He plans to use some of the remaining funds to purchase another vehicle and a software system that wirelessly merges dash cam and body cam footage into one video that automatically uploads to the Sheriff’s Office (and the District Attorney’s Office, when necessary). He did not have concrete numbers on the cost of the software, but stated he wanted to make sure the IT upgrades would be in place and support the software before he made the purchase.
Beyond the 3% cost-of-living raise and the pay increases afforded by SB22, Agnew requested an additional $1.30/hour raise for deputies so their starting hourly pay would be about $27 an hour, which would cost the county about $60,000.
“We didn’t ask for increases in any other line of the budget this year, and I would venture to say not many people did that when they turned in their stuff, so we’re trying to work with you,” Agnew said. “The only thing we’re asking for is a very minimal amount, not to get above, not to even match pay (to surrounding agencies), but just to get close in pay. We’re generating that money in other sources so it’s not like we’re coming and asking for something that’s not available.”
Duncan felt strongly the SB22 money was intended primarily to be used for pay raises. After much back and forth, he suggested a compromise: $40,000 from the county budget and $20,000 from SB22, but Agnew expounded on his opinion that $60,000 isn’t asking for much.
“Our county pays $23.12 an hour, that’s what you pay a deputy to put on a gun and go out to do the job,” Agnew said. “We use the SB money to get it to $25 an hour, so with the 3%, all we’re asking for is (an additional) $1.30 an hour to get them to $27 an hour.”
“Instead of arguing with me Murray, quit talking about the latest and greatest IT equipment and use all the (SB) money to get pay as high as you can get,” Duncan replied.
No action was required on the matters discussed in the budget workshop, but the commissioners (except Micah Anderson, who was absent) were vocal in their support of the $1.30 an hour raise for deputies requested by Agnew.
“No matter what you do, you’re never going to make everybody happy,” Duncan said. “Every year we go through this, and I’m not anti-law enforcement, but I am trying to save as much money for the county as I can. At some point in time, we either stand up for what we think is right, or we don’t.”
The proposed budget and tax rate will be up for more discussion and possible action at the next regular meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 27.