NEWS

Licking County auditor opposes 911 levy

County Commissioner Tim Bubb said, "That's just one person's opinion."

Kent Mallett
Reporter

NEWARK – Licking County Auditor Mike Smith announced in a Friday email to the county commissioners and The Advocate that he opposes the 911 levy on Tuesday's primary election ballot.

"The future of Licking County 911 service is not dependent upon passage of this levy," Smith wrote. "It is an obligation of the Board of County Commissioners to provide said services. The voters should not feel that the future of 911 services depends on them taxing themselves additionally for a service that is currently provided."

Smith has criticized the commissioners in the past for their spending and borrowing practices, but this blunt attack comes just days before the fate of the levy is decided on Election Day.

"I presume the job of spending tax dollars is much easier when there is an unlimited bucket of money," Smith wrote. "It only becomes difficult when one has to make tough decisions as the spigot to the cash becomes restricted."

County Commissioner Tim Bubb said, "I don't think it's fair at the last moment someone takes a cheap shot at (the levy). Mike got his nose out of joint and all of a sudden goes on a rant. That's just one person's opinion."

In the letter Smith criticizes the growing county debt. The county's total debt almost doubled, from $11.5 million at the end of 2008, to $22.7 million today. In 2011, the debt payment due was $739,738. This year, it's just shy of $2 million. General fund revenue increased from $46 million in 2008, to $68 million in 2016. Expenses jumped from $49 million to $60 million during the same time frame.

The proposed five-year, $1 mill property tax levy would raise about $3.9 million annually. It would cost property owners $35 annually per $100,000 of assessed valuation. The cost of the emergency dispatch service is roughly $4 million annually.

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Bubb said, "I think people understand what the issue is about. It's the commissioners' job to get things done. It's important to find a permanent funding solution for 911."

Smith said the commissioners are required to fund 911 service, and the funds will come from Licking County taxpayers, regardless of voter approval of a new tax.

Levy passage would provide the commissioners the opportunity to spend some general fund dollars elsewhere.

"It gives us more flexibility to afford the cost of county government, even as it relates to the 911 Center, on the capital (spending) side," Bubb said. "It's not a money grab at all. We're simply looking for a fair way to generate money for that (911) purpose."

Smith said he had not planned to make his levy opposition public, but felt compelled to do so when he discovered 911 levy campaign literature on the public counter at the Pataskala office of the county auditor and treasurer. He said he visits the Pataskala office about once every other week.

"I would like to know how this literature came to find a home in an office in which I oversee," Smith wrote. "I would also be interested in knowing how this type of political activity for the 911 levy has been allowed/endorsed by our current Board of County Commissioners."

Smith said he spoke out because he feared visitors to the Pataskala office may falsely assume he supports the issue.

Bubb called the placement of the levy literature at the Pataskala office a "minor point."

"I don't see it as a big deal," Bubb said. "There were some brochures dropped off at the Pataskala chamber and some got dropped off there. It probably shouldn't have been. It's a relatively insignificant point."

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kmallett@newark

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740-328-8545

Twitter: @kmallett1958

Licking County Auditor Mike Smith