Notes from the June 5 meeting

News from the Board June 5, 2007-06-06

The Board of Supervisors met in Work Session on June 5. Here’s what happened. (Disclaimer: these are one citizens notes from observation. They are not the official minutes of the meeting.)

1. The Special Use Permit for Joseph Salyards was approved. This is that business that does some kind of waste and recycling stuff. It had been closed down since April because it was operating in a place that wasn’t zoned for that kind of operation. It can now reopen, which will allow it to clean up all the materials that have been building up since it was closed. It is reopening under a temporary arrangement, while it builds a place to move to that is zoned for it. Dr. Cardman, of the Economic Development area, is working with this business. It sounds like a very good business for our area, which has the promise of building jobs.

2. The County Budget was presented for public comments. Nobody commented. I have a comment, but I’m reserving it for its own topic. Basically, the budget is a little bit higher than last year in most categories, and it adds $36M to pay the debt for the schools. We’ll talk about this more over time, but it’s one of those topics you have to dig deeply into, and I’m still focusing on the Comprehensive Plan and the Flood Plain Ordinance right now. If anybody wants to dig into the budget, just call Carolyn at the County offices. 743-4142 Ask for a line item copy of the budget to be mailed to you under Freedom of Information. If you do analyze it, email Research@PageCountyWatch.org and let us know your thoughts. The Budget will be voted on at the June 19 Board meeting. My basic take on it is: there’s time to consider that later. If this year has an extra $36M to pay for the schools, that means the schools will be paid for in two years. So three years from now, what does the county do with all that extra money?

3. There’s some kind of internal conflict on the county’s co-ed softball team. It’s about who is allowed to play. The Supervisors are going to discuss it with the Recreation Director.

4. Henry Milkus gave a report on the Public Works Department, but I didn’t actually understand it.

5. Powell Markowitz talked about his proposal to lower the property tax on aircraft. The basic proposal is this: all the surrounding counties have tax on aircraft that is about 50 cents and ours is $2.70 (I think, I’m not sure, but its high). Powell says this causes people who have airplanes to park their planes in some other county, at some other airport. We then can not attract new planes. We only get the old planes that are depreciated already and don’t have to pay so much tax. Powell is trying to get grants from the FAA to build hangers, I think about 30 hangers. And also to expand the airport more, and add instrument landing and stuff like that. Powell says the airport is a draw for business to come to the community, and should be supported. He quoted some studies about what an airport does for a community’s business base. He is getting $10Million in FAA grants to build it, and the county loaned him about $45,000 at one point, for engineering plans for these hangers, which he needed to get the grant, and which will be paid back from these grants. So once he gets all these hangers built and the longer runway and the 30 hangers, then all the planes and the people who maintain them are jobs, plus the attraction of an airport here allows jobs. Supervisor Hoke said something about it not being right for poor people to pay their full taxes, but people who can afford airplanes get their taxes reduced. Markowitz said these planes are sometimes used for sport, but they are often used for business and to attract business, and we as a community need this airport to be a leverage for business attraction. Mr. LaFrance said he was “not opposed to taxing people who can afford airplanes.” Mr. Markowitz cited some figures about how we aren’t getting the new planes because of this, and he calculated how much tax revenue there would be if he completed his plan and got the new planes in, and he showed how there would still be the same total dollar revenue to the county as there was now, even with the reduced tax rate, if he could get the new planes in, and then there would be a draw for business and it would be a win-win. So Chairman LaFrance appointed a committee to study the issue and report back. The Committee is chaired by Supervisor Strickler, and members are Dr. Cardman, Charlie Campbell (Commissioner of Revenue), and Powell Markowitze.

6. Next was an issue about the new houses being built by the airport. The developer was thinking of putting a drainage pond at the end of the runway, and the FAA says that’s no good, and the county doesn’t really have a representative, no “dog in the fight”, as Mr. LaFrance said, and they need one. But I missed how that was resolved.

7. George Shanks suggested that the county add a probate tax, which we currently don’t have. It would generate $7,500 a year in tax revenue, I guess because people around here are so poor they don’t have much of an estate to pass on, so the probate tax wouldn’t be much. Mr. Shanks said it wouldn’t be a significant imposition, and Charlie Hoke said, “all tax is a significant imposition”. But they decided to go ahead with it. There will be a public hearing scheduled.

8. They changed the security fee you have to pay if you go to criminal and traffic court and lose. It was $5 and now it will be $10. This money goes to a fund that pays for courthouse security. You don’t pay it if you win the case.

9. There was a topic on vehicle use, but I must not have been paying attention because I didn’t write anything in my notes about that.

10. There is a National Association of County Officials conference, but nobody is going.

They then went into closed session to talk about the new County Office Building. This is a valid closed session topic, because if you are talking about contract negotiations, it isn’t sensible to do it in a public forum.

Oh, now I remember why I missed that vehicle use topic! George Shanks brought up (again, this was not on the agenda) the Vote Hiccup on the Planning Commission last time about the Flood Plain Ordinance. I’ll make a new topic to discuss that.