First Posted: 6/18/2014
MAXTON — The town Board of Commissioners on Tuesday approved a $2.4 million budget for the 2014-15 fiscal year that begins July 1 that keeps the tax rate the same.
The budget includes a $1.59 million General Fund, up from the current year’s General Fund of $1.45 million, Water and Sewer funds totaling $714,000 and a Powell Bill appropriation of $200,000. It also provides for the tax rate to remain at 80 cents per $100 of property; includes no fee increases, such as for water, sewer or trash pickup; includes no salary increases for employees; does not eliminate or create new positions; and does not providing funding for any major capital projects.
No one came forward to comment on the budget during a public hearing held just before the commissioners adopted the plan. The commissioners also made no comments on the budget that they finalized June 5 during a budget work session.
“It’s a little tight, but overall it’s a good budget,” Myra Tyndall, the town’s finance director, said after the meeting. “Unless major issues come up that we can’t foresee, we will be all right.”
Following a brief presentation by JoAnn Gentry, the executive director of the Laurinburg-Maxton Airport Commission, the commissioners Tuesday also approved the commission’s $1.2 million budget thatt goes into effect on July 1.
According to Gentry, the new budget is up $34,850 from the current year’s budget. It includes no water and sewer increases, and rent is remaining the same for airport tenants, Gentry said.
Gentry said the budget also includes a 1.5 percent cost-of-living increase for all of the airport’s six full-time employees. It also is providing for 3.5 percent salary adjustments for two employees.
In other business, the commissioners approved a $5 fee that town residents must pay to have the town replace a sewer cap if they damage it with a lawn mower. To avoid the fee, residents can buy a sewer cap and replace it themselves.
Interim Town Manager Angela Pitchford said there have been “a lot of incidents” of sewer caps being damaged by lawn mowers.
