Charles City citizens speak on four-cent tax hike, CIP at public hearing

With a proposal of a four-cent tax increase to support the county’s Capital Improvement Plan (CIP), Charles City citizens voiced displeasure over the move during an Apr. 7 public hearing on the county’s FY2015-16 budget.

Charles City’s budget for the upcoming year is pegged at $18,901,016. Of that amount, $13,799,224 are local dollars to help fund a $2,468,100 CIP with support of a real estate tax increase from 72 cents to 76 cents. Each penny on the tax increase would generate $80,750 for a total of $323,000 to support the plan. That figure would be paired with $500,000 from the recent settlement with Waste Management and $280,000 expected to be carried over from FY2014-15, giving the CIP a proposed $1,103,200 to start.

However, that tax increase didn’t sit well with a few citizens of the county. Eight residents came out and spoke, expressing concerns over the increase and why earlier boards had not addressed previous issues listed in the county’s CIP proposal.

“I’m disappointed and opposed to this tax increase,” said C.D. Harwood Jr. “I looked at other places in the budget where it can be cut.

“You all are asking for money to be put forward to the CIP and you are asking for it all at one time,” he concluded.

“The trend I see is that you [board of supervisors] are going to have higher and higher bills which mean higher and higher taxes,” chimed in O.P. Harwood II.

More citizens voiced opposition to supervisors, saying recent increases over the past two years have affected them financially.

“My tax bill has gone up by over 50 percent,” expressed Charles Tench Jr. “I think landowners are paying more than their fair share.

“The water and sewage system needs to become more self-sufficient,” he continued, pointing to areas of the county that have access to it. “I’m definitely against this increase.”

“Last year we essentially went up four cents on taxes due to reassessment,” said former county administrator Jack Miniclier. “Also, I don’t believe some of the real costs are here in this CIP plan. Also, I would like to see a recording system in the CIP so people are able to see what happens at meetings.”

While many speakers commented about the tax increase, a couple focused attention on the CIP itself.

“I’m happy to see the library made it on this CIP,” said Jimmy Tyler who represents the Charles City Library Campaign Committee. “However, I’m not enthusiastic about it being five years out.

“I think my committee desires for the wait to be shorter,” he concluded, deeming the proposed construction of a county library in FY2019-20 is too far away.

“I agree with Mr. Tyler that the library should be constructed earlier,” said David Ledbetter. “In February, I asked the board to consider looking at other places to cut such as government administration and parks and recreation and focus it on education.

“Under this proposal, the library is expected to start being built in five years, meaning a sixth grader would be an 11th grader before it starts,” he continued. “We are basically losing an entire generation of providing the necessities for educating our kids.

“We spend money on physical strength in parks and recreation, but we need to spend money on mental strength in this county,” he concluded, pointing to the relevance of a library.

County leaders added comments after the public hearing closed.

“Referencing you Mr. [C.D.] Harwood, I completely agree with you that back then the CIP wasn’t funded and that’s true,” said District 2 representative Bill Coada. “It’s been a long time and we always had a CI Dream, not a CIP.

“Also, you said we were asking for the four-cent at once to support the proposed CIP, but that probably doesn’t even begin to cover what we need for our projects,” the supervisor added. “I have taken notes on what everybody’s said and rest assured I’m going to go through each one of them.”

“Everything you all said will definitely be taken into consideration,” chimed in District 3 supervisor Floyd Miles Sr. “I appreciate the community speaking out, and we will work diligently on the budget.”

Supervisors will weigh options in the forthcoming week and are expected to make a decision on the proposal at an Apr. 14 meeting.