Colquitt County begins budget discussions

May 17—Editor's note: This article has been corrected from its original version. Colquitt County's waste is transported to Valdosta's landfill, not where the article originally stated.

MOULTRIE — The Colquitt County Board of Commissioners began discussions of its Fiscal Year 2024 budget Tuesday with presentations from four department heads.

None of the four asked for new personnel, but some sought capital expenditures in the fiscal year, which will begin July 1.

County Administrator Chas Cannon did not seek raises for county employees, but did encourage commissioners to continue a program that provides stipends for employees with critical skills and to continue allowing department heads to recommend merit-based raises up to 1.75% for employees in their departments.

The commissioners will meet again at 4 p.m. Thursday at the Courthouse Annex to hear budget presentations from constitutional officers. More budget meetings are scheduled for 5 p.m. May 23, 25 and 30 and June 1. Commissioners are expected to vote on the budget at a called meeting June 20.

Solid Waste Department

From the public's perspective, the most significant talks revolved around changes in the funding for the solid waste department. Neither of the two proposals was included in the budget, but Cannon wanted commissioners to know what the staff was thinking.

"We're trying to make tweaks on the margins to increase our revenue and reduce our costs," he said.

Commissioners did not vote on either of the proposals, but they are expected to come up again in later meetings.

The solid waste department operates on its own budget, separate from the county's general fund. It relies on revenues from trash pickup and landfill use fees to offset the cost of the collection and transport of waste to a landfill in Valdosta.

The first proposal was to use an existing tax to supplement the solid waste budget.

The State of Georgia levies a tax on life insurance premiums and distributes it to the city or county where the policyholder lives. For example, a resident of Moultrie would have his Insurance Premium Tax sent to the City of Moultrie and the tax for a resident of unincorporated Colquitt County would go to Colquitt County.

Because the county's Insurance Premium Tax comes only from residents of the unincorporated area, state law requires the money be used for something that benefits only the residents in that area. The county currently uses the IPT to pay its dues to the Southwest Georgia Regional Commission and to fund animal control services, County Clerk Melissa Lawson told commissioners. There are a few other programs that could use the IPT, though — including solid waste collection, since the county is responsible for solid waste collection only in the unincorporated area.

Whatever portion of the Insurance Premium Tax is not spent must be used to roll back property tax rates in the unincorporated area. In 2022 residents of the county's cities paid 14.665 mills of county property tax while residents of the unincorporated area paid 11.889 mills; the difference was the rollback for the Insurance Premium Tax.

Solid Waste Director Stacy Griffin requested the purchase of two side-loader trash trucks at a cost of $400,000 each. Cannon proposed using part of the IPT to purchase one of them.

"So you'd be taxing the unincorporated [residents] to prop up solid waste?" Chairman Denver Braswell challenged.

"Yes," Cannon replied, "because solid waste only serves the unincorporated area."

Currently, residents of the unincorporated area pay $25 per month for trash pickup. While no increase in that fee has been proposed in this budget, Cannon said using the tax could help the county avoid a fee increase in the future. The trade-off is higher property taxes in the unincorporated area because the rollback would be smaller.

The second proposal was to change the way the county landfill calculates fees for small users.

Any county resident can bring trash to the county landfill, where it's stored until a shipment is ready to go to Evergreen Landfill in Valdosta, operated by Waste Management. Currently, the cost for the service is 2-1/2 cents per pound with a minimum fee of $5, up to one ton. Beyond that it's $50 per ton.

(Some quick math: Any load up to 200 pounds will cost $5 because of the minimum fee. From there the cost increases by a nickel for every two pounds until it costs $50 to dump 2,000 pounds. After that the $50 per ton fee takes over.)

Cannon proposed a stair-step progression of fees rather than 2-1/2 cents per pound. Residents at the higher end of each stair-step would pay about the same as they do now, but those at the lower end would pay slightly more. County staff hopes the slight increases will add up.

"Solid Waste has got to think about that $10, that $50, that $5,000," Solid Waste Director Stacy Griffin told commissioners. "We've got to think that way now."

Neither of the proposals was included in the proposed budget, which calls for $5,227,000 in revenues and $4,604,514 in expenditures for the Solid Waste Department.

Information Technology

County IT Director Darren Roberson discussed an upgrade to the county's fiber network.

Roberson said the current system needs more bandwidth to do everything the county is working to do, including an increase in videoconferencing in the aftermath of the COVID pandemic. The current system uses cable modems, which would allow a lightning strike to travel to multiple pieces of equipment; the proposed upgrade would remove several of those modems.

The county currently has a contract with CNS at a cost of $1,700 per month, Roberson said. The upgraded system will cost about $4,000 per month, but there will be no up-front cost if the county continues with CNS. Roberson had a quote for a similar system from Kinetic, but the company would want to install its own equipment, which would increase the expense.

Cannon said if the county commission approves the proposed budget without changing this item, it will be considered approval of the upgrade with CNS.

Roberson also asked for a new vehicle to replace a 2012 van that has 150,000 miles on it, for three desktop computers to replace ones that are nine years old, for several iPads to replace ones that are seven or eight years old and for a projector for the commissioners' conference room.

Roads and Bridges

Stan Kirksey, director of the Roads and Bridges Department, included a list of road equipment he'd like the county to replace: two graders, a chipper, two Skid Steers, a paver and four dump trucks. He also asked for a new 15-ton trailer.

The total proposal is roughly $1.3 million. Most of that would come from Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax or Transportation Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax funds.

Most of the equipment, though, is on a buyback program. That means the seller agreed to buy the machine back at the end of a specified time for a specific price. The county usually puts the machines up for auction with the buyback price as a minimum bid. If it sells for more, the county gets the sale price. If it doesn't, the county can sell it back to the provider at the buyback price. Either way offsets some of the cost of the new equipment.

Kirksey also expressed hope that other departments would be getting new pickup trucks. Roads and Bridges usually inherits the used trucks when other departments get new ones, and Kirksey indicated some of the department's current pickups are in bad shape.

Shop and Facilities Maintenance

Mac Lawson, head of the Maintenance Department, said the county shop doesn't need any large capital purchases this year.

The Maintenance Department is asking for an enclosed trailer that would primarily be used to transport election machinery to the polls ahead of elections. Currently the county has to rent an enclosed truck for this purpose.

The budgeted cost of the 8-foot-by-24-foot trailer is $10,000, and Lawson said the trailer "would pay for itself in no time" by eliminating the rental cost.