GATE CITY — A Scott County Board of Supervisors budget workshop was continued to June after disagreements on how to handle a general fund deficit between $850,000 and $1.544 million.
The two deficit figures depend on whether the board accepts a proposal to levy a four-cent “fire tax“ as part of the county’s real estate tax collection system, but at least one board member opposed the idea and another proposed another way to eliminate the deficit and eliminate another source of county tax revenue.
Acting County Administrator Bill Dingus told the board during Wednesday’s workshop that the lower deficit number for the current budget draft had been lowered from a previous $988,000 estimate.
Dingus said a reduction in projected collections for county personal property taxes was offset by a lowered cost projection for the county’s share of the Southwest Virginia Regional Jail Authority operating costs in fiscal year 2025-26.
The revised jail costs come from a drop in the county’s number of jail inmates from a projected 145 to 138 this year, Dingus said.
Scott County’s share of revenue from the Bristol Hard Rock Casino could also reach between $800,000 and $850,000, Supervisor Chair Chris Maness told the board.
While not part of the county real estate tax, the supervisors had considered it as an add-on to that tax collection by assessing it at a rate of four cents per $100 of assessed property value.
District 2 Supervisor Michele Glover said some county residents have told her that they see the “fire tax†— proposed as a way to guarantee some funding to fire departments and emergency medical services in the county — as a burden while they try to pay utilities and but food and medicine.
District 4 Supervisor Michael Brickey recommended an alternative to the fire tax — using money from the county’s unassigned general fund balance to balance the estimated $1.544 million deficit in next year’s budget planning as well and replacing the personal property tax.
Referring to the county audit report earlier Wednesday, Brickey said using the unassigned “rainy day fund†would still leave enough of the unassigned fund balance to meet recommended balance levels equivalent to two months of general fund expenses.
Maness said there seemed to be no board consensus on Brickey or Glover’s proposals, and the board agreed to hold a third workshop after the board’s June 4 regular meeting.
