By Lee Bratcher/OC Monitor
HARTFORD, Ky. — By a vote of 4-2, the Ohio County Fiscal Court approved an amendment to the Occupational Tax Ordinance which will see the tax rate increase from 1 percent to 1.25 percent.
The fiscal court gathered in the fiscal court room at the Ohio County Community Center for it’s March 24 meeting. The meeting was closed to the public due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The only people at the meeting, besides the fiscal court, were County Treasurer Anne Melton and Fiscal Court Clerk Miranda Funk. Funk videoed the meeting and broadcast it on Facebook Live. The state ruled meetings could be conducted in this manner during the pandemic.
When Ohio County Judge-Executive David Johnston announced the meeting would be closed to the public, he said citizens would be able to ask questions by messaging the fiscal court.
The amendment to raise the Occupational Tax had to pass two readings before becoming official. The first reading was approved at the March 10 meeting. The first reading passed by a 4-2 vote with both First District Magistrate Sam Small and Third District Magistrate Joe Barnes voting no.
The fiscal court is raising the Occupational Tax rate to fund both the county’s 911 operations and the fire departments. By raising the rate and making a few budget cuts, the county is assured of funding 911 and the fire departments for at least Fiscal Year 2020/2021.
Before acting on the Occupational Tax Ordinance amendment at Tuesday’s meeting, the fiscal court passed a resolution stating, for a temporary time, the court wouldn’t enforce the new attendance policy it recently instituted.
The fiscal court recently approved a motion to change employees’ “sick” days to “personal” days. The change would require employees to provide 48 hours of advanced notice before missing a day of work. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this resolution would suspend the 48-hour notice for the time being.
Small made the motion to approve Resolution 2020-9 COVID-19. Barnes seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously.
To view Resolution 2020-9 COVID-19, click here.
Johnston also had to make a correction on the pay rate of an employee hired at the Ohio County Community Golf Course at the March 11 meeting. Michael Burgess was hired as a seasonal employee at the gold course at a pay rate of $8.68 per hour.
It was at this point, the video feed from the meeting paused for about 10-15 seconds. When the video feed resumed, Johnston was talking about something other than the correction to the Burgess’ pay.
After consulting with Funk, the pay rate of Burgess was changed from $8.68 per hour to $9.70 per hour.
Johnston then asked for a motion to approve the second reading of Ordinance 2020-7 Occupational Tax Amendment.
Second District Magistrate Jason Bullock made the motion to approve the second reading. Fourth District Magistrate Larry Keown seconded the motion for discussion.
Small, as he did at the March 10 meeting, made his intentions known he wasn’t voting in favor of the tax increase.
“I think this is not the proper time to do it. Actually, I think it’s not the proper way to come up with 911 (funding) and the fire dues,” Small told the court members. “With that being said I respect you all and I respect your decision, but I definitely think it’s the wrong time to do this.”
“I don’t like the time, but when we started this (process), there was no (COVID-19) pandemic,” Bullock said. “We were going to start (the tax increase) now, but we’re going to wait until July 1, 2020, to start it. As far as any other way, there were never any clear concrete figures or numbers, to even do a budget because we didn’t even know what we were going to get.”
Bullock is referring to a past idea of the court’s to collect the 911 fees through county water bills. Ohio County Water District General Manager Walt Beasley expressed his displeasure of adding the fee to the water bill at the Feb. 25 fiscal court meeting. At the same time, the county’s fire departments and the fiscal court were looking at ways to fund the departments because it was impossible to do through fire dues.
In the end, most of the court decided increasing the Occupational Tax rate would be the best way to fund 911 and fire departments. Plus, Bullock believed the court would have a better estimate of how much money they’d collect to help plan out next fiscal year’s budget.
“We have to do something and we have to have clear figures to balance the budget,” Bullock said. “I don’t like doing it either, but it hasn’t been done since 1994 and I wish we didn’t have to do it.”
“I’m not for taxes and this is really going to affect my family, but I think this is the fairest way and we’ve got to have 911 and our fire departments,” Fifth District Magistrate Larry Morphew said.
Morphew said he’d only vote for the tax increase because the amendment states the money collected would only go to emergency services with an emphasis on 911 operations and fire departments.
“Nobody likes it, but without it, we can’t prepare a budget,” Johnston said.
The state requires the county to submit a balanced budget each year for approval. Johnston told the court it was running out of time to prepare a budget to submit to the state. The fiscal court needed to submit its FY 2020/2021 budget by late June.
“It’s the lesser of two evils, nobody wants to do it, but as you sit on the court and you look at your budget and you look at the revenues coming in and the expenditures going out, we don’t have an option,” Keown said.
It was at this point, Funk asked Johnston if the fiscal court wanted to take questions from the public before voting or at the end of the meeting, which is usually the case at open meetings. Johnston said no questions.
Then the discussion turned to perhaps postponing the vote until the court was able to allow people to attend the meetings. Though most of the court members agreed it was unknown how long the restrictions would last.
Johnston called for a roll call vote. The motion to approve the second reading of Ordinance 2020-7 Occupational Tax Amendment passed by a 4-2 vote. Once again, both Small and Barnes voted no.
At the end of the meeting, the fiscal court took three questions from those who watched the meeting on Facebook Live. After answering those questions, the meeting was adjourned.
The new Occupational Tax rate will go into effect beginning July 1, 2020. The 911 fee will remain on phone bills for landlines and all county fire departments will continue to collect fire dues.
To view a PDF copy of Ordinance 2020-7 Occupational Tax Amendment, click here.
To view the meeting on Facebook Live, visit the Ohio County Fiscal Court’s Facebook page.