Council points to May 22 budget meeting

The extent to which Oconee County Council will make additions to the new budget could be determined during the next meeting of the council’s budget and finance committee. That meeting is set for the evening of Tuesday, May 22. The council has already given its commitment to hire additional school resource officers and establish deputy coroner as a full-time job, but other changes remained uncertain as the result of last night’s first reading, in title only, of the 2018-19 budget. Still up in the air other potential amendments that would buy an additional fire truck, address ADA compliance at High Falls Park, and provide new quarters for the Westminster Magistrate. And once all of those budget changes are factored in can be determined the size of the tax increase to fund them. One estimate, so far, is an approximate two-mill increase which would add $8 dollars to the property tax bill of the owner of a home assessed at $100 thousand value.