News - Local/State

Tuesday, May. 13, 2008

YORK COUNTY BUDGET Fees increase, but not taxes

With 10,000 new York County residents last year, the county government is looking to add 50 positions to staff new buildings and keep up with growth in some departments.

The York County Council plans to keep pace with growth while not raising overall property taxes next year, County Manager Jim Baker said at a recent budget workshop. Slight increases are proposed in the Rural Fire Board and two fire districts, Flint Hill and Newport.

To counter the rising costs for some county services, residents will be asked to pay higher fees at the planning department and animal control and for disposing of solid waste.

County staff worked to keep taxes the same, Baker said.

"Last year was tough economically across the country and a tough time for a lot of citizens," Baker said. "We looked at what has changed in cost of living and population growth in the county to determine an average increase for each department."

York County has the lowest ratio of county employees to residents in the state, at 3.89 staff members per 1,000 residents. County departments asked to add more than 100 employees to the existing staff of 850. Half of the positions requested are included in the budget recommended to the council last week, carrying a price tag of $2.9 million.

Below are some of the highlights.

PENNIES FOR PROGRESS

More county employees will be needed to take over managing the county's 1-cent sales tax, which funds the "Pennies for Progress" road program. The county is moving away from using Capital Management and Engineering for that job because of poor communication. Baker expects the transition to be complete by this fall.

Seven new positions were needed to complete the transition. Of those, five have been approved by the council, and the current budget recommends two project engineers for the 1997 and 2003 Pennies programs, County Engineer Mark Kettlewell said.

The engineering department's budget requests total $700,000 more than last year, including four more new employees for work other than Pennies for Progress, as well as money to start on the next Pennies referendum and a boat to test water quality.

County Councilman Roy Blake said he wanted to see Kettlewell get everything he asked for because he wants to speed up work on Pennies for Progress.

NEW PRISON

The county's new prison and expanded jail at the Moss Justice Center will have room for more inmates, but that means more people are needed to supervise them.

Of the $2.9 million proposed for new county employees, $1.1 million is earmarked for eight detention officers for the jail, eight correctional officers and a nurse for the new prison and five new sheriff's deputies.

The new, 256-bed prison should be open this fall, and the jail will be expanded using the old prison. Sheriff Bruce Bryant has said the department has been paying several officers overtime to meet minimum jail staffing standards.

These new positions should reduce those overtime hours, but some increased overtime is figured into the prison's budget for next year.

The county's budget includes only half the 10 deputies Bryant requested to answer the nearly 20 percent increase in calls between 2005 and 2007.

ANIMAL CONTROL

New animal shelter procedures were called for at York County's Animal Control after a dog died from what some said was mistreatment and photos of another bloody dog circulated on the county's Web site in late 2007 and earlier this year.

Adding a full-time veterinarian and additional veterinary technician to the county's budget should provide more care at the shelter, County Public Works Director David Harmon said.

The shelter only has a part-time veterinarian now, and pairing that with another technician will allow for animal care seven days a week, according to budget documents.

The animal control department, under new supervisor Chris Peninger, also requested money to vaccinate all animals when they come into the facility to prevent passing diseases, Harmon said. Raising the fee to adopt animals should cover this new expense.

Harmon said he expects changes to animal control's procedures to go before council soon.

"We're looking to increase volunteer emphasis at the shelter," Harmon said. "We need that to increase adoptions in the shelter."

The shelter had about 40 volunteers and handled 10,000 animals in 2007.

WHAT'S NEXT

York County officials will continue to meet and discuss the budget next week at their third workshop.

The public will be able to comment on the budget May 27, and the council is expected to finalize the budget by June 16.