The Calhoun City Board of Aldermen made significant changes to their proposed budget for next fiscal year, including removing a 2-mil tax increase on a 3-2 vote Thursday night.
The board met at 5 p.m. Thursday in a recessed meeting after a “fiery debate” in the regular meeting Tuesday in which Alderwoman Barbara Goodson asked Alderman Dale Hays, “Why did you go around talking about the budget? You’re just stirring stink,” when he announced he couldn’t vote for the budget on the table.
Thursday night, Marshall Coleman joined Goodson in supporting the budget and the two-mil increase, but Hays, Larry Bratton and Jerry Vaughn all opposed.
The tax increase would have generated an extra $14,000. Alderman Coleman said that’s a drop in the bucket to what is needed.
“Had we been doing this the past 12 years we would be well over this $14,000,” he said. “We’re going to have to cut services eventually if we don’t come up with some revenue.”
“We don’t have time for all this,” Coleman said. “We agreed (at a previous meeting) we would raise taxes.”
“Until we got push back (from citizens),” Vaughn replied.
“I haven’t had anybody tell me not to raise taxes, but I don’t go door to door stirring things up, but I’m not throwing that at anybody,” Coleman said. "People know taxes have to be raised. Nobody wants their taxes raised. I don’t. But everybody wants better roads and their sewers fixed.”
The board also removed a number of other expense items from the budget including an additional $50,000 for paving. Hays, Bratton, and Vaughn supported a bond issue to pay for that citizens would have to vote on rather than a tax increase from the board.
Other items removed from the budget included a new sewer machine ($55,000), a new police car ($30,000), another full-time worker for the public works department, and funds to repair one of the town’s weather sirens. All of those items were removed on the same 3-2 vote.
The same vote results were tallied on a 2% pay raise for all full time employees and increasing water rates, with Coleman and Goodson opposing.
