Murphy – Leaders in cash-strapped Cherokee County are trying to reconcile the need to spend more on education and law enforcement – two of their biggest responsibilities – without increasing taxes.
The Board of Commissioners has been holding a series of workshops with department heads ahead of meetings later this month to finalize the 2023-24 budget. A multimillion-dollar judgment against the county’s Department of Social Services has left the board with little in the way of discretionary funds.
The board canceled Monday’s regular meeting and has scheduled two budget workshops for this month – 6 p.m. Tuesday, May 23, and 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 30, both at the Cherokee County Courthouse.
Sheriff’s officials saw the writing on the wall with the county budget and have been going after a number of grants to help make ends meet. The sheriff’s office has sought approval from county leaders to go after a $250,000 grant to pay the salaries of two additional patrol deputies for three years.
Sheriff Dustin Smith had asked for four positions, but compromised at two in addition to additional deputy and bailiff positions he requested in his upcoming budget.
The grant only provides basic pay and just for three years. It requires the county to commit to four years for each position, plus cover all other costs – benefits, overtime, equipment and patrol vehicles, plus a match – about $477,0000 in all over a four-year period that the county is ill-prepared to cover.
Sheriff’s officials have been rushing to complete the grant application, with winners to be announced in October and funding becoming available in July 2024. Board Chairman Cal Stiles summed it up by saying the grant will save the county a third of the cost of hiring a new deputy.
“There is definitely a need for more deputies,” Stiles said.
“There is a need for more deputies, preferably grant-funded,” Commissioner Dan Eichenbaum said.
The board voted 5-0 for the sheriff to seek grant funding for two deputies and understands that he will seek a waiver for the local match for the positions.
Meanwhile, the state is planning generous pay increases for school teachers – 10 percent for certified teachers, 6.5 percent for classified employees – but will not cover increased costs for benefits, nor does it cover any pay increase for locally funded positions or teacher supplements.
“When often the state Legislature falls short of their fiscal responsibility to provide a basic education,” Cherokee County Schools Superintendent Keevin Woody wrote in a memo to the Board of Commissioners, “we recognize that we cannot maintain what is expected by our community without local support.”
The school district is seeking $483,036 from the county to make up the difference.
Cherokee County Schools have been coping with COVID-19 impacts since 2020, but today the challenge seems to be preparing workers to cover a workforce shortage.