Saturday, July 14, 2012

Floyd County Choses Not to Increase Cumulative Capital Fund for Parks

From the Jeffersonville News and Tribune:

Floyd County Commissioners said Friday they do not intend to consider a new tax this year that would foot a cumulative capital fund for the New Albany-Floyd County Parks Department.

In June, parks officials met with commissioners to discuss implementing the tax to generate about $125,000 annually. The city has a cumulative capital fund for the parks department, which accumulated about $685,625 from 2007 to 2011.

Commissioners said in June the next step would be to hold a public hearing over the new levy, which parks officials estimated would cost a taxpayer $5 to $8 a year, but the proposal isn’t likely to move forward at least in 2012.

“Right now, as a whole, I don’t think anybody wants to put a new tax on the residents,” Floyd County Commissioners President Steve Bush said Friday.

Equal funding for the joint parks department has been a major topic for city and county officials since last year. According to city figures, New Albany has paid about $4 million more toward the parks department since 2004.

The two entities were to split parks funding equally based on population after merging the department in 1994. New Albany Mayor Jeff Gahan vetoed a new agreement earlier this year that called for the city and county to have equal funding mechanisms in place by October, as he cited a lack of restitution being offered by the county.

Though the deal was vetoed, the county did appropriate funding to put it on equal footing with the city this year for funding the parks $1 million operating budget.

The budget is separate from the cumulative capital fund, which has been used to pay for construction projects and maintenance. The proposal was for the county to establish a levy that would match the city’s annual cumulative capital fund intake.

“In 2012, we’ve paid our fair share, if you will, so right now there’s no plan of a public hearing” on a cumulative capital fund, Bush said.
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http://newsandtribune.com/floydcounty/x1447684470/Floyd-County-parks-cumulative-cap-fund-won-t-happen-this-year