Chester County Commissioners voted against the propsed 2024-2025 budget in Monday evening’s special called meeting, in a 9-8 roll call vote. The budget committee will revise the proposed budget to present again to the entire commission in coming weeks. Pictured above, clockwise from lower left, are Commissioners Carolyn Higgins, Tim Crowe and Brenda Matthews.
Photos by Kendall Patterson, Independent
By Kara Crump
Staff Writer
The Chester County Commission met in a special called session Monday evening, July 22, with 17 present and Commissioner Renee Phelps absent.
The proposed budget ultimately failed to pass in a roll call vote, sending the budget committee back to address concerns.
Quarterly reports were unanimously approved for the Chester County Highway Department, Chester County Trustee and County General
Chester County Fire Chief Stephen Moore did not have a Quarterly Report for the Fire Department but spoke of improved training to reduce the ISO Rating along with firefighter recruiter, Troy Williams, who has recruited 14 firefighters in the last two years and explained the current recruiting process to the Commissioners.
Chester County Library Director Crystal Richarson, gave the Library Quarterly Report which included 30,000 visits to the library since April 30. She also announced each Storytime event this summer had a minimum of 90 people in attendance and that the library would be closed for bathroom renovations during the dates of August 5-25.
Thomas Winbush of the Solid Waste Department stated there was no quarterly report due to technical difficulties (a computer malfunction forcing him to recreate the report completely).
When public comments were open, audience member Chris Simmons said, “I would like to know if these figures put in the paper on July 11 - if you’re confident about these figures?”
Ann Moore replied with, “That is the budget we approved.” Simmons continued stating different numbers present in the budget posted in the newspaper, counting those figures, and the 15-cent tax increase proposed. He then asked if the figures were correct, which Moore confirmed, and Nathan Ward joined in to explain about ARPA and “ambulance” money not being included in the budget which, he stated, makes the budget accurate. Simmons replied, “Robbing Peter to pay Paul,” to Ward’s explanation.
A resolution was unanimously approved to Improve local postal service. This is to make USPS mail and deliveries easier for Chester County, to move (or return) mail/packages to the home location of Jackson instead of Memphis, improving delivery times for the community. This is a request to Federal Representation (not all but including US Senator Marsha Blackburn, US Senator Bill Hagerty, US Postmaster General Louis DeJoy) signed by all the Chester County Commissioners.
All budget amendments for all funds—2025 Budget and the resolution for charitable contributions were both approved with none opposed.
The resolution for fixing the tax rate for 2024-2025 at 2.1869, which includes a 15-cent property tax increase, resulted in discussion between the budget committee and the commissioners. The committee recommendation to approve the proposed budget and tax rate increase failed in a 9/8 roll call vote with the following commissioners voting against: Jerry Lowe, Al McKinnon, Dwight Bingham, Tim Crowe, Barry Smith, Brenda Matthews, Todd Lewis and Ricky Hardy.
“I can’t vote for it. I won’t put any more expenses on the people of the county,” stated Jerry Lowe.
“I really had to pray about this,” said Commissioner Matthews. “I do not feel good, 100% good, about this budget, I do not. I’m gonna say no.” she concluded.
Commissioner Carolyn Higgins interjected, “But she voted for it on the Budget Committee. I don’t think that’s right. I don’t think you should be able to change your mind, and you voted for it on the Budget Committee.” Higgins then addressed those voting against the proposed budget, “What kind of vendetta y’all got?”
Toward the end of the meeting, Higgins made another statement to her fellow Commissioners, “I’ve got something to say… I think that most of these people that voted no (on the budget) has got a vendetta with some of these people on the advisory board and the budget committee because no one… y’all don’t have to vote like that… That’s just a vendetta.”
“My thing is if you’re going to raise property taxes, you gotta have a clean budget,” explained Crowe as to why he voted no.
Later in the meeting, budget committee advisory board member Deborah Keen asked Commissioner Crowe, “I have a question about salaries. You said you saw an increase in salaries; besides State Mandate, can you tell me which ones?” Crowe responded those included the salaries of fire chief, librarian and emergency management. Keen responded that both the mayor and the sheriff had taken a pay decrease which in turn, balanced out the budget.
With the failed vote, the budget committee will reconvene to make the necessary changes and prepare to again present the revised budget to the entire commission. That date is to be determined.
In other business, a resolution for Mutual Aid Training between the Chester County Fire Department and the City of Henderson Fire Department was approved unanimously. The commission also voted 10/7 to approve the sale of beer at C&R Grocery, with the following voting against: Kevin Faulkner, Andrea Holland, Nathan Ward, Carolyn Higgins, Ann Moore, Jerry Emerson and Mike Alexander.
