With the fiscal year starting in just two days from the vote, Liberty County commissioners adopted their FY 2024 budget Thursday in a 4-3 vote.

The vote gives the go-ahead to a county budget that tops $57.7 million, a more than 16% increase from the FY23 budget.

Commissioners Marion Stevens, Connie Thrift and Justin Frasier, along with Chairman Donald Lovette, voted in favor of the proposed budget. Commissioners Gary Gilliard, Maxie Jones and Eddie Walden, who all opposed its adoption two weeks ago, voted against adopting it in Thursday’s special called meeting.

“Any way you look at it, 16% is a lot,” Commissioner Walden said. “We’re going to have people saying ‘you’re already taxing me on my homes.’” Commissioners looked at options of trimming the budget, including eliminating some proposed positions, reducing the numbers of other open positions and deferring putting into place higher wages, the result of a long-awaited salary study.

Original budget requests came in over at $65 million, and the final proposed budget totaled $57.7 million. The fiscal year 2023 budget was just under $49.6 million, for an increase of just over $8.1 million.

The implementation of the salary study, bringing the pay of county employees in line with other governments, is projected to add nearly $1.55 million to the budget. Merit and longevity pay for county personnel is expected to tack on another $640,000.

The addition of personnel to public safety, through hiring more firefighters, is pegged at another $1 million. With the salary study, the merit and longevity pay and the new positions, the county added more than $3.5 million to the budget for FY24.

“We had waited so long for that study, I can’t see justifying cutting anything off of there,” Commissioner Thrift said. “We waited so long and they have been with us through a pandemic. I’m all about giving these employees what they deserve.”

Though the budget calls for 14 fire fighters to be stationed at the Miller Park headquarters, expected to open in early fall. There are 13 other vacancies in the fire department but another class of recruits is expected to graduate and help fill those spots.

Commissioners pondered taking the money from fire fighter spots that might not get filled, estimated at around $243,000, and holding that in reserve until the digest is presented and approved and millage rates for property taxes are adopted.

Commissioners weighed several options with the budget, from eliminating some positions requested to deferring putting in action parts of the salary study, stop payments to non-profit groups and closing the Lake George fire station.

“I knew we were at deadlock and I was looking at some options for consideration,” Commissioner Gilliard said. “I went in with the intent to cut so that when the digest comes out that we have a better chance of keeping the millage same or maybe even lowering the millage. I didn’t have a time in mind to say cut.

“My intent is to number one, take care of the existing county employees,” Gilliard said. “They stood with us through a worldwide pandemic. They need to be compensated for their dedication. We did a salary study so we could retain our good, hard-working employees. But it was also contingent on that we don’t do anything but pay the bills until we get a feel for what the digest brings in. My goal is to take care of our existing employees and either keep the taxes the same or lower them.”

The digest, which the commissioners will use to set the millage rate and property taxes, is expected to be ready in about two months.

“No one ever wants to raise taxes,” Commissioner Frasier said. “I know in the past, as a body, we have been committed to public safety in recent years, from the fire department to everything in between.”

Commissioner Jones, whose district includes Lake George, voiced his opposition to closing the station there. Closing the station and moving the fire fighters placed there to the Miller Park headquarters was expected to save about $790,000.

“That’s personal for me and my district,” Jones said. “I wouldn’t guess the thousands of homes within the proximity of that station. The nearest station would be three miles away and the county stations would be farther than that. I would be hell-bent against closing that station. To not have a manned station would be reckless and careless.”

Gilliard propose cutting in half the number of fire fighters for the coming Miller Park headquarters to be hired.

“We would have a brand-new building we’d cut the ribbon on and close the doors,” Commissioner Stevens said.

the proposed budget. Commissioners Gary Gilliard, Maxie Jones and Eddie Walden, who all opposed its adoption two weeks ago, voted against adopting it in Thursday’s special called meeting.

“Any way you look at it, 16% is a lot,” Commissioner Walden said. “We’re going to have people saying ‘you’re already taxing me on my homes.’” Commissioners looked at options of trimming the budget, including eliminating some proposed positions, reducing the numbers of other open positions and deferring putting into place higher wages, the result of a long-awaited salary study.

Original budget requests came in over at $65 million, and the final proposed budget totaled $57.7 million. The fiscal year 2023 budget was just under $49.6 million, for an increase of just over $8.1 million.

The implementation of the salary study, bringing the pay of county employees in line with other governments, is projected to add nearly $1.55 million to the budget. Merit and longevity pay for county personnel is expected to tack on another $640,000.

The addition of personnel to public safety, through hiring more firefighters, is pegged at another $1 million. With the salary study, the merit and longevity pay and the new positions, the county added more than $3.5 million to the budget for FY24.

“We had waited so long for that study, I can’t see justifying cutting anything off of there,” Commissioner Thrift said. “We waited so long and they have been with us through a pandemic. I’m all about giving these employees what they deserve.”

Though the budget calls for 14 fire fighters to be stationed at the Miller Park headquarters, expected to open in early fall. There are 13 other vacancies in the fire department but another class of recruits is expected to graduate and help fill those spots.

Commissioners pondered taking the money from fire fighter spots that might not get filled, estimated at around $243,000, and holding that in reserve until the digest is presented and approved and millage rates for property taxes are adopted.

Commissioners weighed several options with the budget, from eliminating some positions requested to deferring putting in action parts of the salary study, stop payments to non-profit groups and closing the Lake George fire station.

“I knew we were at deadlock and I was looking at some options for consideration,” Commissioner Gilliard said. “I went in with the intent to cut so that when the digest comes out that we have a better chance of keeping the millage same or maybe even lowering the millage. I didn’t have a time in mind to say cut.

“My intent is to number one, take care of the existing county employees,” Gilliard said. “They stood with us through a worldwide pandemic. They need to be compensated for their dedication. We did a salary study so we could retain our good, hard-working employees. But it was also contingent on that we don’t do anything but pay the bills until we get a feel for what the digest brings in. My goal is to take care of our existing employees and either keep the taxes the same or lower them.”

The digest, which the commissioners will use to set the millage rate and property taxes, is expected to be ready in about two months.

“No one ever wants to raise taxes,” Commissioner Frasier said. “I know in the past, as a body, we have been committed to public safety in recent years, from the fire department to everything in between.”

Commissioner Jones, whose district includes Lake George, voiced his opposition to closing the station there. Closing the station and moving the fire fighters placed there to the Miller Park headquarters was expected to save about $790,000.

“That’s personal for me and my district,” Jones said. “I wouldn’t guess the thousands of homes within the proximity of that station. The nearest station would be three miles away and the county stations would be farther than that. I would be hell-bent against closing that station. To not have a manned station would be reckless and careless.”

Gilliard propose cutting in half the number of fire fighters for the coming Miller Park headquarters to be hired.

“We would have a brand-new building we’d cut the ribbon on and close the doors,” Commissioner Stevens said.

“There is no ribbon to cut today and no ribbon to cut yesterday and no ribbon to be cut tomorrow,” Gilliard replied. “We don’t have it today and we could probably do without it tomorrow.”

ISO ratings

Commissioners also debated whether having a countywide fire department would result in lower ISO ratings, and thereby lower home insurance premiums, for homeowners.

Commissioner Walden said the lowering of ISO ratings is how establishing a countywide fire department was sold initially to the board.

“And it didn’t change,” he said.

Instead, Commissioner Walden noted, the ISO raters are looking at the distance to a fire station, instead of the availability of water and having fulltime firefighters.

“The ISO was the big seller,” Commissioner Jones said. “That hasn’t happened. I remember that clearly being the selling point for this countywide fire service.”

But Commissioner Stevens pointed out that home insurance rates in District 3, Commissioner Thrift’s district, have gone down with the opening of the Gum Branch station.

“It is up to your insurance company how much of a break they are going to give you,” he said.

Brown also indicated that not filling those 14 positions at the Miller Park station likely would have a negative impact on ISO ratings for that area.

Though the budget calls for hiring 14 firefighters in order to fully staff the soon to open fire services headquarters on Highway 84, Brown cautioned that finding candidates for those spots may be an issue and the county may not necessarily fill those slots.

Gilliard said had commissioners known when they were first discussing a countywide fire services plan and looking at a potential tax hike as the budget grew by more than 16%, he hoped they would have decided not to take that on.

Other costs added to the budget

The county also has taken over EMS operations from Liberty Regional Medical Center and its property and casualty insurance coverage has skyrocketed since last year, adding another $1.5 million to the county’s budget. Health insurance premiums also went up 8%.

Brown said the current budget takes into account the $1 million the county used from fund balance for the FY23 budget.

Commissioner Frasier pressed for two things he said he’s pleaded for since he was first elected to the board — a revenue-generating venture and an economic development authority.

“We still don’t have that here, and that’s a part of quality of life,” he said. “Let’s find a way to create more money. I pay taxes too. I’m all for quality of life, and quality of life costs. We have to figure out to get more money to relieve the taxpayers.

“Let’s find alternatives to take pressure off our citizens.”

Frasier also said that since the county has built facilities, it has to be committed to staffing them. Frasier added in his conversations with commissioners from other counties, budgets across the state are going up.

“We have to figure out a way to offset our budget and the only way we can do it is with a revenue-generating project and economic development,” he said.

“I would like to see more industries and places to shop because they don’t require a lot of the services homeowners need,” Commissioner Thrift added.

Commissioner Stevens also suggested approaching local industries to contribute toward providing fire, law enforcement and EMS. He also said the county is losing out on timber tax proceeds after state laws were changed.