Commission finishes budget work

State Deputy Comptroller Jason Mumpower visited the recessed meeting of the Cannon County Commission Tuesday night and made it very clear to commissioners the state would take over the county's finances if a balanced budget wasn't submitted by August 31.

Mumpower said the state would immediately take over the finances, putting discretionary spending on services such as fire departments, the ambulance service and senior citizen funding in jeopardy.

Mumpower made it very clear what the commission's objective should be and warned of the takeover. Formulating a budget and funding is the major responsibility of a commissioner, he said.

The Commission then took over after Mumpower's presentation and a public hearing and went to work to figure out how to appropriate money for new expenses in the 2019-2020 fiscal year budget, which began July 1.

What was believed would be a 16-cent property tax increase drew down to a 3-cent increase but then moved back up to a final 8-cent property tax hike.

The meeting took over five hours and reached a point where it looked like the voting stalled on various tax levies.

Commissioner Randy Gannon came back to the meeting after leaving momentarily to call in to work.

The break down of the new $2.46 rate is as follows:

General Fund 1.45
Solid Waste Sanitation 0.08
General Purpose School 0.685
General Debt Service 0.040
Ambulance Service .2050