Thursday, the Pearl River County Board of Supervisors held their first budget workshop for the upcoming budget year.
This workshop focused primarily on road and bridge/culvert budgets.
County Administrator Adrain Lumpkin presented the Board with an itemized list of the proposed budgets for the year, as well as last year’s expenditures.
According to a Pearl River County Tax levy comparison, provided by Lumpkin, the 2016 millage rate for the road department is 5.5 mills, and has been since 2009.
Increased assessment values would bring in an additional $117,000 in revenue for the road department, if the millage rate were to remain the same, according to Lumpkin’s budget.
Only ten percent of what a property owner pays goes to the road fund, said Lumpkin.
To date, the county road fund has an excess of $700,000 left in their funding, but that excess would be reduced to about $40,000 by October 1, Lumpkin said.
The surplus would be carried over into next year’s cash on hand fund and would help with projects at the beginning of the term, Lumpkin said.
The Board also discussed borrowing money to assemble a road department task force in order to hire the additional 15 workers needed to effectively maintain county roads.
However, with winter approaching, much of the necessary roadwork cannot be completed, said Board Vice President Hudson Holliday.
The Board also discussed ways to keep the road department active by working small projects, including repaving small sections of roads.
Lumpkin said that if the current total county millage of 54.82 remained the same, taxes would generate an additional $900,000 for the general fund budget.
Supervisor Malcolm Perry suggested the Board lower the millage for the general fund, and reallocate mills to the road department to generate more funds.
County Road Manager Charlie Schielder said his department is understaffed and unable to keep up with the demands of county residents.
“You wouldn’t believe the amount of claims for front end alignments and tires that our insurance has to pay, amounting to around $100,000/year,” Schielder said.
County Engineer Les Dungan has proposed a four-year road plan to the Board that is still under discussion.
The plan, Dungan said, would divide roads into segments, with some being a higher priority than others.
Fixing one area of the road would improve its overall quality, said Holliday.
The proposed budget for the bridge and culvert fund shows that if the current 3.5 millage rate carried over to next year, the county would see an $88,000 increase in revenue.
To date, the bridge and culvert fund is about $7,000 under budget, but Lumpkin predicted the department will finish this season about $100,000 over budget before October.
The Board also discussed the results of the public hearing on tax assessments.
About 50 objections were submitted to the Board and turned over to the Pearl River County Tax Assessor’s office to see if mistakes were made, Lumpkin said.
However, most of those objections offered no evidence to support their claims, Lumpkin said.