Nine people spoke at a public hearing hosted by the York County Board of Supervisors Thursday about the proposed budget for 2014, with seven saying the supervisors needed to find a way not to raise the tax rate.
The proposed budget calls for a 2.3 cent real estate tax rate increase that would raise the rate to 76.45 cents per $100 of assessed value. The supervisors voted to raise the rate by 8.4 cents last year, which many of the seven speakers who addressed the tax rate reminded them of.
James Chapman suggested the supervisors look at other ways to generate revenue since county citizens are facing increased costs across the board. Many of the other speakers agreed.
“We can’t continue to have all these increases balanced on us,” said Steve Romeo. “Find ways to save money.”
Robert Frailey said taxes on a property that has been in his family for over 40 years have risen from $200 to $4,000 per year. He questioned the county’s need to provide funding to groups like the Lackey Free Clinic or the American Red Cross.
Greg Garrett said the supervisors knew they could extract millions of dollars of spending from the budget and that a group of business people from the county had offered to help the supervisors identify ways to trim the budget, but those offers were not accepted by the supervisors.
The other two speakers were Patrick Belcher of the American Red Cross who urged the supervisors to reinstate a $1,000 contribution to the organization, which he said would be enough to help a family of four in the immediate aftermath of a disaster. The other speaker was Carol Sale, director of the Lackey Free Clinic. She said they provide care to over 400 York residents per year and that there is currently a waiting list of over 250 people.
The supervisors will vote on the proposed budget on May 2 if they can finish their deliberations by then. If not, they will vote on it May 7.
You can read the proposed budget by clicking here.
