Brooks County Millage Rate 2023 Rising

    The Board met on Wednesday, July 13 and Friday, July 15, 2022, to review and discuss the 2023 county budget requests by department heads. Proposals and options brought before them by the County Administrator were discussed with review of the outcome of the millage rate for each option that was under consideration.

     One of the suggestions was to pull from the reserve to fully fund the budget and keep the taxes from going up, but the majority suggested and felt the 4 million taken from the reserve for the courthouse renovation and the new ag building had depleted the reserve therefore what was left needed to be saved for a “rainy day”. (The reserve consists of unused budgeted funds left at the end of the fiscal year that are then placed in reserve.) Further discussion carried over from the meetings of the previous week.

    After the July 15th meeting, Commissioner Larko posted on his Facebook Commissioner page why he was opposed to raising the mileage rate. In his post he stated, ““On Friday the Board of Commissioners held a meeting to review the 2023 county budget. On the agenda was the funding of Expenditure requests from various departments to the tune of more than 1.13 million dollars, in addition to the required amount needed to operate all county departments. With that request and the increasing operating costs, the board voted 3 to 2 to increase the base Millage rate. I am on record as opposing any increase in taxes for now, especially with the current inflationary state our economy is in. I do understand the cost of operating has increased and will continue to increase but now is not the time for additional spending or increasing taxes to burden citizens with addition cost to their monthly budgets for food, electric and gas. Departments need to find ways to cut their budget, for example: The counties vehicle fleet aging, and needs be cycled through but acquiring 8 vehicles in this next fiscal year, with our current economic outlook, in my opinion, this is not wise. With the supply chain challenges causing strains on every aspect of the economy, vehicles will come at a premium cost- when and if you can find them. Our County needs to grow, and it is, and with this comes growth comes growing pains but now is not the time to cause undue pain and pressure to an already straining economic situation to the citizen of Brooks County. Our next budget meeting will be Monday, July 18 at 5 pm in the Commissioner meeting room. I hope you can attend. The monthly Board of Commissioners meetings are held the first Monday of the month.”

    The Brooks County Board of Commissioners met again on July 18, 2022, in a special called meeting in order to set the millage rate for the county. The meeting was held in the Commissioners meeting room at the County Tax Building. 

Attending the meeting were commissioners Patrick Folsom, Lee Larko, Willie Cody, James Maxwell, Myra Exum, County Administrator, Jessica McKinney, County Clerk Patricia Williams, Human Resources, Kim Daniels, and citizens of the county. The meeting began at 5:15 p.m. and concluded at 6 p.m. estimated.

Discussion during this meeting included the increase of the millage for the incorporated and unincorporated areas, the increase of sanitation costs and expenses. Additional discussion was the need to increase for fire safety and to decrease the millage for the development authority. Commissioner Exum wanted to specify that amount of the fire safety increase. It was discussed and announced that 1% increase would be for the fire safety meaning the increase for this was at 100% from the 2021 millage rate. The rate would increase at $275,000.00 for 2023 from 2021. 

    Further discussion came from the Board in form of explaining the cost of not raising taxes in 2020 and pulling from the reserve in 2021. Commissioner Folsom and Commissioner Maxwell explained the rising need to raise employee wages, the rising costs of materials and needs for the road department, further need for new equipment in law enforcement, a rising need for renovations on the CID building and other government buildings and replacement of the funds taken from the reserve. 

    Voting for the increase was split three to two approving the decision. Final approved millage rate for Incorporated millage rate was set for 2023 at 16.1073, Unincorporated is set at 14.1525, Sanitation approved to rise from $16 a can to $18 a can totaling $216.00 a year per property, and Fire service fees will increase 100% from 2021 millage rate going across the board as an increase of 1%, an increase of $275,000.00 total.

     The Board will have their regular monthly meeting on August 1, 2022, at the Brooks County Courthouse beginning at 5:00 p.m. The Board will also hold three public meetings, the first of two on August 8, 2022, at 11 a.m. and again at 2 p.m. and the third to be held on August 17, 2022, at 6 p.m. The public meetings location will be announced at a later date.