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Commissioners and staff from Lowndes County buckled down Friday at Chairman Ashley Paulk’s guest home to address issues such as waste management, special tax lighting districts, SPLOST negotiations and necessary expenditures for equipment and staff.

By the end of the afternoon, Commissioners made decisions on a few key issues.

Solid waste management, which is currently handled with collection centers, has run at a deficit of over $300,000. Fees have been transferred from landfill hosting fees to help recover some of those costs. Cards for use of those centers are available to citizens at $100, but revenue is still not equivalent to operation costs. Commissioners decided that getting out of the “trash business” was best and that a non-exclusive agreement with current curbside pickup companies (which about 12,000 citizens already employ) would provide service without putting any people out of business. They also thought that adding a surcharge of $2 to those companies would help cover the collection centers, in order to continue to provide more premium services such as recycling, yard waste and appliance disposal. An ordinance that will make illegal dumping more of a serious offense was also considered to prevent people from neglecting the use of a curbside pickup company.

 The Special Tax Lighting District program allows developers to request lights to be turned on in a subdivision. Rates have not been increased at least since 1995 even though utility companies have frequent rate hikes. This has caused some subdivisions to underpay and others to overpay. It currently runs at a deficit of about $100,000.

District 2 Commissioner Richard Raines felt there should be a simple solution to the problem. He was also disappointed little had been done on the issue, which was discussed during last year’s retreat.

“You should be able to just divide the number of lights with the number of lots in that subdivision,” said Raines. “I cannot make it any simpler than that. That’s all there should be to it. Let’s move on to something else in the agenda.”

Commissioners also decided that removal of the Lowndes County Historic Courthouse Annex should be a priority, but also that they would have to wait for revenues from SPLOST VII to come in first. Renovations of the Historic Courthouse were also discussed as a priority.

 Mark Rogers, CPA from Henderson & Godbee, LLP laid out the details of an audit completed for Fiscal Year 2011. Discussion from commissioners at this point was limited—they mostly listened. County manager Joe Pritchard assured them the budget was in better shape than last year.

 The County currently has close to 115-120 days worth of “rainy day” funds from property taxes, Finance Director Stephanie Black stated.

 For the year ending June 30, 2011, the General Fund ended with total revenues at $40,146,851 and was over budgeted amounts by $95,544. Expenditures were $39,704,918 and were under budget by $69,476 on a budgetary basis. Special Revenue Funds had revenues of $11,098,419 and expenditures of $10,951,499. Capital Projects Funds had revenues of $22,083,201 and expenditures of $20,356,279. SPLOST IV, V and VI funds accounted for $21,726,434 of the revenues and $17,141,268 of the expenditures for the year. The Judicial Complex and Jail Fund accounted for $230,048 of the revenues and $3,088,292 of the expenditures.

Health insurance for County employees will require some adjustment in the future and new equipment, as both vehicles and computers will have to be budgeted. Over the last couple of years, the County has neglected the purchase of new equipment, instead opting for repair costs as a result of reduced revenue because of the economy. Vehicles are needed by the Sheriff’s Department, Public Works and the Fire Department.

This reduction in equipment purchases has been apparent in the private sector as well and Commissioners bounced around purchasing used equipment.

Employee health insurance is also an issue, as cost of living and health insurance premiums have effectively resulted in a pay cut for many employees. On top of this, because of budget restrictions, staff has been stretched beyond a comfortable level.

“Every department is beginning to talk to me in terms of the stress level that all of their employees are experiencing just from the work load,” said Pritchard. “It’s no different than running an engine without oil. At the level of expectation we and the public have, I can guarantee we can’t continue like this. We have been successful for three years at keeping our budget balanced, but those demands continue.”

Financial analyst Harrison Tillman discussed SPLOST funding, including when negotiations would be held. At the end of the day, Commissioners agreed upon meeting with area Mayors on April 9, after an upcoming Lowndes County Board of Commissioners work session.

They went over several SPLOST projects such as the Lowndes County Judicial and Administration Complex and Lowndes County Jail Phase II project, which totaled over $48 million in SPLOST VI funds. Another large purchase was the Lowndes County Emergency Operations Center at about $2.7 million.

Because of the economic downturn recently, many projects had to be delayed but over the last 12 months, there has been a steady increase in SPLOST revenues – a signal of an improving economy, but still not up to original predictions.

“We budgeted conservatively and there was extra money,” said Pritchard. “We have always encouraged staff to be as conservative in our estimations and liberal in our expectations of expenditures.”

Pritchard said that staff had tweaked the County budget to the limit and the only thing that will improve their bond rating was a higher per capita income.

Recent Georgia legislation which eliminates the sales tax on vehicle purchases will have some impact on SPLOST revenues in the future. No projects were specifically detailed for SPLOST VII negotiations.

Commissioners will return today for another round of discussions.

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