Macon commissioners narrowly approve budget
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implementing the forthcoming recommendations of a pay study, increasing the Fontana Regional Library budget by $30,000 a year, a one-time investment for Nikwasi Initiative and a one-time $10,000 capital project at Cowee School. The remaining funds will be placed into the county’s contingency fund to make sure the county has enough funds to implement the pay study. If the money isn’t needed to increase pay for county positions, it will be put toward capital needs for the school system. County Manager Derek Roland didn’t include a 2 percent COLA raise for employees in the budget, anticipating the results of a pay study that will increase wages by an average of 6 percent depending on the position. However, Commission Chairman Jim Tate recommended moving forward with a COLA this year, which will cost the county an additional $417,000 on top of the $1.8 million set aside in the budget to implement the pay study results when they come in later this summer. Higdon said he wanted to apologize to taxpayers for increasing their property taxes for the second year in a row and during a time of financial hardship. “Financially this county is flushed with money. Macon is getting $7 million in COVID relief funds and has $28 million in fund balance,” he said. “There’s no reason why we need more from taxpayers. Jackson County just reduced their tax rate to 36
(cents) after revaluation. I can’t vote for the commissioners’ budget.” Even with increasing the property tax rate to 40 cents per $100 of value, Commissioner Ronnie Beale pointed out that Macon still had one of the lowest tax rates in the state. Haywood County’s tax rate last year was at 58.5 cents and this year the county approved a rate of 53.5 cents. He also argued that the reasons for the increase were legitimate county needs. “These are not pet projects — all of these are important. The pay study, raises for employees — out of the four pay studies we’ve done, none of them have been fully funded so we decided to do it this year,” Beale said. He added that Nikwasi Initiative was doing important economic development work in conjunction with the Eastern Band of
Cherokee Indians and that the county should continue to support that effort. Beale said Cowee School was a countyowned building that needed to be maintained by the county. “We’re putting a new well in our own building. We own it and it’s been a desperate need for some time,” he said. As far as the $28 million sitting in the county’s fund balance, Beale said it’s there for a reason and can’t be spent on reoccurring costs. Years ago, the board of commissioners passed a policy to keep 25 percent of the county’s annual expenditures in the balance even though the state requires only 8 percent in reserves. “You’re not just voting against the tax increase, you’re voting against the budget — all of it,” he told Higdon and Young. The budget passed by a 3 to 2 vote.
Jackson passes resolution to uphold the U.S. Constitution
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Stribling said during a follow-up discussion at the May 18 meeting. In response, Chairman Brian McMahan told Stribling that the board had been discussing such a resolution before the pandemic redirected everybody’s focus. He then highlighted various sections of a proposed resolution that would affirm the entire Constitution rather than focusing solely on the Second Amendment. “We wanted to make sure that we recognized the first 10 amendments to the Constitution, which is known as the Bill of Rights,” he said. “That’s the main focus of making sure that we honor and protect and highlight those 10 amendments, which includes Mr. Stribling’s Second Amendment.” Unlike a similar resolution that the Haywood County Board of Commissioners passed in February 2020, Jackson County’s resolution does not specifically mention the right to bear arms except as part of a paragraph that lists all the rights outlined in the first ten amendments. The Haywood County resolution, meanwhile, devotes three para-
graphs to second amendment rights. “I know some of the other counties adopted much larger resolutions that got into much more in-depth conversation, but this is very simple and to the point,” McMahan said May 18. At just over 300 words, the resolution lists the individual rights outlined in the Bill of Rights, states that 17 other amendments were added later and says that “the Constitution has been and is under pressure and attack from foreign and domestic entities.” Jackson County residents have asked commissioners to resolve to protect their constitutional rights, it continues, before devoting three paragraphs to explaining commissioners’ commitment to the Constitution. Commissioners took an oath to uphold the Constitution, led fundraising efforts to install full-size replicas of America’s founding documents at Freedom Park — located within Mark Watson Park in Sylva — and have a “deep commitment” to protecting constitutional rights that places them “in opposition of any proposed law that infringes upon an
individual’s’ constitutional rights,” the resolution states. “If ever in this country we need to pledge to ourselves to uphold the Constitution of the United States, it seems to be right now,” said Commissioner Boyce Deitz prior to the June 1 vote. “It seems that there’s been a move in this country to make the nation whatever you want it to be from day to day, but it’s solemnly not that.” The Jan. 6 riot in Washington D.C. is an example of that move, said Deitz, and of the need to safeguard the U.S. Constitution. “There is no area in this county that is untouched or left where there wasn’t somebody who gave their service and ultimately their life in service to this nation to preserve, protect and defend the founding documents that we stood right in front of,” said McMahan, reflecting on the Memorial Day celebration he’d attended the day before. “Some of them may have volunteered to go, some of them may have been drafted and didn’t really want to go, but they went because it was a call of duty for their country.”
Smoky Mountain News
BY HOLLY KAYS STAFF WRITER y unanimous vote during their Tuesday, June 1, meeting, Jackson County commissioners passed a resolution that “calls upon the North Carolina General Assembly and the United States Congress to use all their powers and authority to protect our citizens’ freedom under the Constitution.” Commissioner Tom Stribling originally suggested the resolution during an April work session, asking that commissioners consider a measure declaring Jackson County a constitutionally protected county, particularly regarding the second amendment and the right to bear arms. During the early months of 2020, the majority of counties in Western North Carolina passed resolutions opposing potential measures that might infringe upon the right to bear arms, but Jackson County had not yet considered such a resolution. “I was just wanting to make Jackson County a constitutional carry county like our neighboring counties around us,”
June 16-22, 2021
BY J ESSI STONE N EWS E DITOR acon County commissioners approved the 2021-22 fiscal budget, but two Republican commissioners opposed its passage because they disagreed with increasing the tax rate. Commissioner Paul Higdon, who is serving his third term on the board, and newly elected Commissioner Josh Young both voted against the budget. Higdon, who has voted against the budget several times during his tenure, said during the public hearing that he wanted to apologize to the county manager for disregarding his proposed budget and to the taxpayers of Macon County for raising taxes. “The county manager did a great job along with his team bringing us a flat budget and I support it,” he said. “But last week, just like last year, we got into pet projects — the Nikwasi Initiative and Cowee School — those are charities and we have $75,000 set aside in a community fund pool and then off the cuff give $25,000 to a charity.” At the last meeting, commissioners voted to increase property taxes from 37 cents per $100 of assessed value to 40 cents even though the county budget saw a significant increase thanks to a 19 percent increase in sales tax revenue. The additional revenue will generate about $2 million a year. The $2 million gain will go toward providing a 2 percent cost-of-living raise for county employees ($400,000), $600,000 toward
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