A Cherokee County group that calls itself The Citizens Committee met with government officials last week and presented recommendations on cutting expenditures as county commissioners begin work over the next few months on the 2012 budget.
Members of the group talked with county manager Jerry Cooper for about two and a half hours Thursday night and laid out a 16-point plan to trim government and postpone capital expenditures until the economy turns around, said Carolyn Cosby, a Tea Party activist who chairs the 9-member committee.
Cosby said the group expects to present its plan, which she called “our founding document” to the county commission next week, perhaps during its regularly-scheduled Tuesday commission meeting.
County manager Jerry Cooper confirmed the meeting. He has said the county welcomes input from the group, which in August proposed the idea of advising the county after the commission raised the millage rate for the first time in 15 years.
The collapse of the real estate market reduced tax revenue in the county as property values depreciated by about $1.4 billion. The commission has whittled the budget by almost $9 million in the last four years while shrinking county staff from 1,345 to 1,270.The group said those cuts are not enough.
Commission chairman L.B. “Buzz” Ahrens said last week that members of the group met him before the Sept. 6 commission meeting and recommended the commission delay putting out for bid a planned $19 million aquatics center that would be funded by a revenue bond passed by voters in 2008.
Ahrens said the commission delayed asking for bids but it would have anyway without the group’s recommendation. Cosby said the group would first like the county to determine whether user fees charged by the aquatics center would be enough to pay for its operation.
“The world is a lot different today than it was when voters approved that bond,” said Cosby. “In this economy it would have never passed."
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