Garland board divided over tax rate, will meet again Thursday

The Garland Board of Commissioners has put the brakes on its budget approval following Monday night’s public hearing. The reason? A divide between commissioners as they try to decide what the new tax rate should be after the revaluation done by the county.

Samantha Wullenwaber, deputy executive director for Mid-Carolina Regional Council, helped create the budget with the board over the spring and was at the meeting to go over the fiscal plan and the tax rates that have been set. She explained that due to the revaluation the tax rate for a revenue equivalent of the past year would be $0.46 per $100 valuation.

“You need to remember that during a revaluation year, you can come up with a couple different tax rates. And your tax rate for a revenue equivalent is $0.46, so that’s going to yield the same amount of revenue with revaluation,” Wullenwaber explained.

But she went on to say that due to a negative growth rate for the town, the true revenue neutral tax rate would be around $0.44 per $100 valuation.

“But due to the negative 5 percent in your growth, your revenue neutral tax rate is actually $0.44,” she said.

In order to balance the budget with the neutral tax rate, Wullenwaber said Garland would have to cut around $98,000 in expenses based on the current budget proposalwith a tax rate of $0.65 per $100 valuation.

After Wullenwaber gave her opening statement about the budget, residents were then invited to speak. One them, Tim Register, spoke first. He gave a plea to the board to have them adopt a revenue neutral tax rate and get rid of some of the expenses that he felt could be cut.

“We’re paying $20,000 to treat fire ants in this town. We’re paying $20,000 to cut grass at a cemetery that the town doesn’t even own, that the individual property owners own. There are places all over this budget that can be cut. You can’t just assume because this revaluation put $109,000 in your pocket that you were supposed to go out and spend it. You’re supposed to cut the rate back to the revenue neutral rate,” Register stressed.

Another resident, Mary Anne Johnson, said that if the board did not adopt the revenue neutral rate it would make it even more difficult for the people who live in the town and already find it difficult to pay their taxes.

“I would just like to also ask to please adopt the revenue neutral rate because the way — and I know there’s a lot of stuff y’all have to — the town has to pay for and stuff that can be a little bit difficult and stuff, but now there’s already a lot being paid. And this will make it, even if it doesn’t go down to this revenue neutral rate, that it’s going to make it even more difficult for some people that are already having that difficulty,” she said plainly.

After hearing from the residents, the board took a moment to decide what they wanted to do that night — adopt the budget as it is or change the tax rate to revenue neutral and rework the budget to cut the $98,000 needed to make it work.

Commissioner Ralph Smith Jr. made a point to say that the commissioners needed to rework the budget instead of approving it that night.

“My thoughts on this is that we should not have any actions tonight. We should revamp this budget. This amount, and try to get this broken down,” Smith said.

This sentiment was shared by Mayor Austin Brown, who told the board he saw several cuts that could be made on the budget.

“I look at this budget, and I see several cuts, starting with the cemeteries, starting with buildings, starting with recreation. You’ve got $30,000 sitting in recreation and you’ve got a $90,000 grant sitting out there,” Mayor Brown said.

Mayor Brown went on to tell the board that they could meet either Thursday night or Monday to rework the budget if they wanted to do so.

It was unanimously decided that the board would meet Thursday night to go over the budget one more time.

When Commissioner Smith tried to get the board to at least agree to a tax rate before Thursday, the motion died.

Commissioner Jo Strickland instead said the board should table the budget until Thursday night so that they could have some more time to review the documents given and make a more informed decision.

“I personally would like to have a little bit more additional time to sit down and review these documents myself rather than listen to a decision that I am not informed about,” she said.

The motion to table the budget until they met again Thursday was passed 3 to 1 with only Commissioner Smith voting against tabling the discussion.

The Board of Commissioners will meet Thursday night at 6:30 p.m. to go over the tax rates and the budget.

They have until June 30 to adopt a budget for the 2024-25 fiscal year.