By Karissa Minn
kminn@salisburypost.com
SALISBURY — At the same meeting Monday that residents gathered to oppose cuts to arts groups, Rowan County commissioners discovered that they may have to find another $2.4 million in cuts or raise taxes next year.
The North Carolina House is set to vote on its version of the budget today, and if it gains approval from the House, Senate and governor, it will shift some state expenses to counties.
“Financially, it’s a major setback for us,” said County Manager Gary Page. “They just zeroed out all the work we’ve done over the past 90 days.”
After working hard to slice $2 million from its departments and $1 million from schools, Page said, the county would have to either cut more or raise taxes under the House budget to come up with the $2.4 million.
That number is less than the $3.6 million the North Carolina Association of County Commissioners estimated Gov. Bev Perdue’s proposed budget would cost Rowan County in February. And the House rejected her proposal to shift school bus replacement, workers’ compensation and tort claim costs to counties and school districts.
But the House budget would reduce state aid to libraries by 15 percent and eliminate veterans affairs funding to counties, among other cuts. It also would shift state misdemeanants with sentences less than 180 days to county jails and increase judicial fees to help offset the cost.
“If the fees they intend to give us… are so great, why don’t they just keep them and leave us alone?” Sides said. “We don’t need any more hits. The next step could be to close parks or libraries.”
Sides also said he plans to suggest to legislators that they keep the once-cent sales tax, generating another $1.2 billion in revenue, if that would keep counties out of it.
Commissioner Jon Barber said members of the local delegation are doing “phenomenal jobs” but what he read of the budget “made (his) stomach turn.”
“When we’re being fiscally responsible, and for them to add something like this… is just very disturbing,” Barber said.
Chairman Chad Mitchell called it “disingenuous” for members of the General Assembly to say they’re passing a budget with no tax increases.
“It’s not a no-tax-increase budget,” Mitchell said. “They’re just taking their expenses and telling us to take care of them.”
Commissioner Carl Ford said when expenses are passed down from the federal government to the state and then to the counties, there’s nowhere for counties to turn except to their residents.
“We have to pass it down to the people with more taxes or fewer services,” Ford said. “There’s nothing else to do but cut, and… we’re running out of space here.”
At the same meeting Monday, the board heard opposition to cuts it already proposed.
During the public comment period, several representatives from arts organizations spoke to commissioners to persuade them not to cut their funding.
Possibly two dozen more gathered at the meeting in support of the speakers and their cause.
In a straw vote April 4, the board approved cutting all county funding for the Rowan Arts Council, Rowan Museum Inc and the Salisbury-Rowan Human Relations Council. County funding to most other nonprofit groups would be cut by 10 percent.
Reid Leonard told the board the $24,000 it gives to the Rowan Arts Council is evenly split four ways among Piedmont Players Theatre, Waterworks Visual Arts Center, the Salisbury Symphony Orchestra and the council itself. The Arts Council then funds smaller arts groups.
Leonard is the director of Piedmont Players, which he said provides not only entertainment but education for the local community.
“I think there’s support throughout Rowan County for continuing funding of the arts,” Leonard said. “On the middle of the afternoon on a school day — a work day — a number of people have come to show support for the arts.”
Tim Proper, Waterworks board chair, said his organization gives valuable of benefits to the community, including free arts education to all fifth- graders in the Rowan-Salisbury School System.
He said the level of county funding determines the amount of state funding for these programs.
“We’re going to have less services for that small investment that you make for the residents of our county,” Proper said.
Kaye Brown Hirst, director of the Rowan Museum, said local children and adults are given the opportunity to learn about Rowan County history for free at the museum.
“We have been the stewards of Rowan County history for 58 years,” Hirst said. “Please make it possible for us to continue doing that.”
Linda Jones, business manager for the Salisbury Symphony, said the money being withheld would make more of a difference to the arts organizations than to the county.
“To you and your budget, that’s a cut. That’s a scratch. To us, it’s a serious wound,” Jones said. However, she said, the arts groups can afford a 10 percent funding cut.
Contact reporter Karissa Minn at 704-797-4222.
In other business
Rowan County Commissioners also:
• Approved a rezoning request that would allow Annie Boone-Carroll to convert a vacant convenience store into a funeral home at 4725 Long Ferry Road.
Several local residents voiced concerns during a public hearing.
The request to rezone from rural agricultural to commercial, business and industrial passed 3-2, with Barber and Mitchell dissenting.
• Voted unanimously in favor of a rezoning of property at 11710 Bringle Ferry Road from rural agricultural to industrial with a conditional use district, allowing allow Charles Blackwelder to operate a metal recycling center.
• Authorized planning staff to begin preliminary data collections for an east Rowan land use study and conduct study-specific discussions with Committee A of the planning board.
• Instructed staff to move forward in the process of improvements to the county’s emergency services system.
This includes preparing a request for quotation for a new 911 center building, developing a memorandum of understanding with the city of Salisbury and negotiating with a tower owner and Kannapolis to let the county use their tower sites.
• Approved the application for a $1 million Targeted Transit Assistance Grant, which would require a $55,000 match from Rowan County.
It would be used for maintaining current levels of service to elderly and disabled individuals, a job access and reverse commute program and two 22-seat replacement vehicles for Rowan Express South.
• Authorized removal of bad soil at the new satellite jail construction site for $245,450.
• Accepted a $160,000 offer from Dallas Winecoff to purchase a property at 6205 Mooresville Highway after no upset bids were received.
The house was formerly used as a group home but has been vacant since 2006.
• Approved the addition of Belmont Place to the state secondary road system for maintenance.
• Approved budget amendments and board appointments.