The SDN looks at the budget woes of the County and the effect on the paving budget. Interesting quote from Don Posey:
“I don’t have an answer for this,” said County Administrator Don Posey, who speculated that a pull out of Cadence Bank might have contributed. “They stopped paying their ‘intangibles,’ which, I think, are from bonds,” said Posey. This pull-out costed the county about $31 million.
So, what are their “intangibles?”
It also appears that you can pay the County to pave your road. Eight residents of San Marcos Drive are willing to pony up $1000 “donations” to the County if their road is paid.
UPDATE: The Dispatch chimes in with a little clearer article. Appears that Cadence had paid $30 million in taxes annually on bonds and other “intangibles.” The decided that they didn’t have to so all of a sudden, there’s a hole in revenues for the County.
Looks like the SDN article is confusing assessed value and actual tax revenues. IMHO, the article was poorly written and confusing. According to the article, our assessed valuation actually went up but not as much as anticipated. That increase in assessed value means our county tax revenues should also be going up but just not as much as anticipated — assuming millage rates will remain the same.
After reading the well written article in the Columbus Dispatch regarding the same meeting, I believe the SDN writer didn’t have a clue!
let me get this straight – the county (knowingly or unknowingly?) continued to count on money in the budget that wasn’t even supposed to be there to begin with? Did they think it would go on indefinitely? And what’s with all the finger pointing? It “costed” the county? Ummm – let’s get the grammar straight and then we’ll talk about the fact it wasn’t theirs to begin with. Another case of the blind leading the blind.