Proposed tax hike reaches 10 cents

The Alleghany County Board of Commissioners added several items to their proposed budget on Monday, including adding funding for Alleghany

Memorial Hospital and the Alleghany Wellness Center. With the moves already agreed upon by the commissioners, the tax rate will need to increase by 10 cents to pay for the associated costs. The current county rate is 60 cents per $100 in value.

The commissioners agreed to meet the hospital's request for $500,000 that could be used to help recruit a new surgeon and meet other needs there by attempting to get a loan to pay for that funding.

County Manager Don Adams said several loan sources are being explored. In addition, the commissioners agreed to add $35,000 to the funding for the Alleghany Wellness Center, raising that organization's funding to $60,000 per year.

The county will also be offering more funding to schools, giving the school system an additional $100,000. Of those funds, $40,000 will be for current expenses and $60,000 are for capital outlay needs. Adams said Tuesday that the schools have access to enough funding to meet all of their capital budget requests if all available state funds are utilized. The county is recommending that the $40,000 in current expense funds be used for an alternative education teacher to help at-risk students get caught up in school.

The schools would need to access about $140,000 in ADM (average daily membership) funds to meet those needs, said Alleghany Schools Finance Officer Karen Leys. That move would basically put the fund balance in the school ADM account at zero, she said, but would allow for a number of needed school safety projects to be completed. The schools have requested those projects for several years, she said.

The commissioners also agreed to make several personnel additions to the budget.

Among those was moving the local Veterans Service Office from one day to 2.5 days per week with benefits and increaseing a position at the Alleghany Public Library from 20 hours per week to 40 hours per week with benefits.

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