April 28, 2020
By: Dwayne Page
Could the COVID-19 pandemic mean lost tax revenue for local governments?
For several weeks local businesses have had to alter the way they operate in providing services to the public due to COVID-19 and some have been forced to close completely because of the Governor’s Executive Orders regarding social distancing.
Since local governments rely on tax revenues including sales taxes and fees from services to help balance their budgets, concerns have been raised about possible revenue shortfalls for the county.
During Monday night’s monthly county commission meeting via a conference call, members Bruce Malone and Dennis Slager questioned if there should be a plan to cut expenses.
“I think everybody knows we are probably going to have a budget shortfall and we will have to go into cash (reserves) to pay all the budgeted expenses. Do you have a plan of trying to reduce expenses for the remainder of the budget year that would save us some money to help offset some of these shortfalls we are definitely going to be having”, asked Slager.
County Mayor Tim Stribling said the budgetary concerns will be addressed but in the meantime the business of the county goes on during the pandemic even though much of the work for the public is being done by officials at the courthouse and county complex behind locked doors .
“We are going to continue as we have been. As far as county offices, they may be locked but people are in there working. At the county complex, the Property Assessor, County Clerk, Register of Deeds and Trustee have their front doors locked but they are in there working. We are very fortunate that we have a drive through window for our County Clerk and are able to continue that service. We will have to look at the budget shortfalls and make adjustments. I am sure revenues will be less than normal and as far as the sales tax it will be affected but we might be able to get some money back for some things through the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) ACT,” said Stribling.
Although he had not asked them directly, Malone questioned during Monday night’s meeting how the sheriff and the public officials serving the court system are using their employees during the pandemic.
“At the sheriff’s office we are utilizing the school resource officers and the court officers to work shifts. They work shifts when school is out. We are using them. We have a plan in place that we are using for COVID-19 until the threat of that is gone and the courts open back up. We also have a plan in place at the jail in case we have to quarantine shifts we still have enough employees to cover the jail and the county,” said Sheriff Ray.
“We are still receiving civil papers and those fees are paid up front. As soon as we get back to normal then we will serve those papers,” he continued.
“A few people have asked me what are the court officers and jailers doing since the jail is empty,” said Malone.
“The jail is not empty”, answered Sheriff Ray. “Inmates are still being brought in but the District Attorney General has given us strict guidelines on what charges to arrest on and when to use traffic citations in lieu of arrests but we still have arrests coming in,” he said.
“We are also taking advantage of the smaller inmate population to get the cells cleaned, painted, and repaired while we can because I assume when the courts open back up we will probably get the inmate population back up,” added Sheriff Ray.