Newspaper Page Text
Budget Hearings To Begin
BUDGET REQUEST SUMMARY
Civil Defense — $ 149,101.00
Coroner 13,625.00
Correctional Institution 134,950.00
County Agent - 15,150.00
County Commissioners - 95,568.90
Drug Abuse Commission 35,344.00
Elections, Board of 40,677.95
Houston-Peach Drug Squad 81,551.00
Inspection Department 38,766.00
Juvenile Court 14,081.00
Juvenile Office) 56,264.00
Ordinary - 35,975.76
Probation Office 19,582.00
Public Buildings 88,688.35
Public Defendei 39,674.00
Public Health - - 211,816.00
Public Roads & Bridges 420,302.00
Recreation 94,386.00
Sheriff- - - 478,455.92
State Court Clerk 32,552.00
State Court Judge 44,508.00
State Court Solicitor — 29,497.00
Superior Court Clerk 92,782.80
Superior Court District Attorney 49,951.00
Superior Court Judge 77,625.00
Tax Assessors 87,286.00
Tax Commissioner 117,907.54
Waste Disposal 66,990.00
1 Miscellaneous 706,325.00
*
TOTAL AMOUNT REQUESTED $3,369,383.22
J SPECIAL NOTICE
FROM CITY OF PERRY
UTILITIES DEPTS.
(GAS, WATER, SEWAGE)
New Deposit Rates
COMMERCIAL
All new customers must put up a SIOO.OO deposit before any
** utility can be cut on. Old customers whose utility is cut off the
second time within a six month period must also put up the
SIOO.OO deposit in addition to a SIO.OO penalty for each cut off.
A $5.00 charge for each trip by employee after the first will be
made.
RESIDENCES
All new customers must put up a $25.00 deposit each for
water and gas before the utility can be cut on. Old customers
whose utility is cut off the second time within a six month
period must also put up the $25.00 deposit for each in addition
to a SIO.OO penalty for each cut off. A $5.00 charge for each
trip by employee fter the first will be made.
No one is to be notified of delinquent bills.
These new regulations are to become effective immediately!
* UTILITIES COMMITTEE
Councilmen
Alton Hardy,
Henry Casey,
and Gordon Scarborough,Jr.
For County Commission Monday Night
The Houston County
Commissioners will begin
budget hearings next Monday
night at 7:30 P.M. in Warner
Robins. The 1974-75 county
budget, which goes into effect
on July 1, will approximate
three million dollars if the
Commission holds the county
millage rate at 10 mills.
Budget requests total
$3,369,383, so the five man
board will have to chop about
$300,000 off the requests to
retain the desired millage
rate.
The 1974 county tax digest
has risen by about 21 million
dollars since last year. In 1973
the gross tax digest was $205
million, now it is ap
proximately $222 million. The
approximate net digest ex
pected for 1974 is $2Ol million.
If ten mills is applied to the
net digest, about two million
dollars is available from
county taxes for county
governmental operation. An
additional one million dollars
comes from other sources,
such as beer, wine and liquor
licenses (about $145,000), from
the State Court (about
$175,000), the sheriff’s
department (about $19,0001,
and other sources.
A 178 page preliminary
budget was released to the
news media at Monday night’s
Commission meeting in
Warner Rabins. It shows a
departmental breakdown of
budget requests, and nearly
every department is
requesting an increase in
funding. Some departments
include a five percent cost of
living raise; others do not
include the pay hike.
The Civil Defense, for in
stance, has requested a
budget of $149,101 compared to
1973-74 s $34,651. Director Ed
Wagnon said that the majority
of that increase is for
equipment already authorized
lor purchase.
The Correctional Institute
request jumped from SIOI,OOO
in 1973-74 to $134,950 next year.
An increase of $24,000 in an
ticipated food costs bears the
major portion of this in
creased request.
The Drug Abuse Com
mission has requested a hike
of $20,344 in their budget, from
$15,000 to $35,344. Director
Hunter Hurst notes, however,
that if a grant application
comes through from the
National Institute of Mental
Health, requests for two ad
ditional employees, totaling
$17,000 in salaries, will be
absorbed by the federal grant.
So his request could be as little
as $3,344.
The Houston-Peach Drug
Squad is requesting an in
crease from $33,892 up to
$81,551.00 for fiscal year 1974-
75. Os this amount the federal
government will pay
$56,913.00. Local agencies
(Houston and Peach Counties,
Perry, Warner Robins, and
Fort Valley) will supply the
remaining $24,638.00. The
squad is expected to expand
from its present two-man
force to a five-man force for
next year. The remaining
three men will be supplied by
Perry, Fort Valley, and
Warner Robins.
The Juvenile Office is
requesting an increase from
$39,934 in 1973-74 to $56,264,00
in 1974-75. An automobile and
salary increase comprise the
major part of this increase,
Houston County Judge of
Ordinary Courts Clint Watson
has requested an increase
Irom $31,006 up to $35,975.76 of
which the great part is cost of
living increases.
The Public Defender
department has asked an
increase of more than $20,000
in its department - more than
100 percent increase. In 1973-
74 the budgeted total was
$19,397.59, and the requested
amount was $39,674 for next
year. But the increased
amount is largely due to the
fact that the department
operated only six months in
this fiscal year, beginning as
of January l of this year. So
the “real” increase is only
about SI,OOO.
The Public Roads and
Bridges department has asked
lor an increase from $308,000
this year up to $420,302 for the
coming year. Sixty thousand
dollars of that amount is pay
raises, and another thirty-five
thousand is an increase in
motor vehicle supplies.
Sheriff Cullen Talton has
asked for an increase in his
department’s allocation from
its 1973-74 total of $291,074 up
To Three-Quarter Mill
School Board Lowers
v
Bonds Tax Millage
The county Board of
Education Tuesday voted to
assess three-quarters of one
mill property tax for school
bonds in 1974-75. This is a one
quarter mill reduction from
the 1973-74 assessment of one
mill.
The */4 mill reduction is
possible because of a 21
million dollar increase in the
county gross tax digest from a
year ago. The estimated gross
tax digest, as Tax Com
missioner Joyce Griffin
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to a request of $478,455.92 for
the coming year. The majority
of this increased budgt
request is pay raises (about
$30,000), motor vehicle
maintenance (about $18, 000),
gasoline and oil (about $9,000),
motor vehicle equipment
($35,900) and other equip
stales, will approximate $222
million. The net taxable digest
should approach
$204,173,954.00.
School system Assistant
School Superintendent Seabie
Hickson recommended the
assessment of the three
quarters of a mill for the
school bonds. He noted that
three-fourths of a mill would
bring in $164,363.81, based on
(he Tax Commission’s ten
tative digest projections.
Needed for the tends is a
total of $142,930.64 in 1974-75.
HOUSTON HOME JOURNAL THURS., JUNE 13, 1*74,
ment. Talton enclosed 21
pages of explanations for the
increase.
“Miscellaneous” depart
mental requests total over
$700,000 for the new year.
They include: $105,000 for the
new county library system,
$100,426.00 for the ambulance
Left over from last year’s one
mill assessment will be a July
l, 1974 beginning balance of
about $53,966.86. Added
together those two figures
total the funds required on the
bonds of $196,897.50.
In other action, the sehool
board made no decision on a
request from the Atlanta
based Southeastern Fair
Association to enter an exhibit
at the annual exhibition. But
the board obviously felt that if
any exhibit at all was to be
made by the school board, if
service, $61,200 in hospital
indigent care writeoffs,
$31,000 to the Middle Georgia.
Area Planning and
Development Commission,
$76,136.00 for a Rabies Control ,
department, $75,000 on the
hospital bond expansion, and
several other areas.
A
should first be shown at a local
fair.
Charles A, Neustadt,
President of the Southeastern
Fair Association, requested
the exhibit in a letter to the
board dated May 28. In his
correspondence, he noted that-;;
most people thought his fair
was publicly supported. In. ;
actuality the Southeastern
Fair is a private organization 1
(although it is actively
seeking public funding from
the City of Atlanta, the state of
Georgia, or Fulton County.
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