Video: Lowndes Looks to Projects, Priorities

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LOWNDES COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI) — In addition to its major investment in a skills training center of the future, Lowndes County also has its eye on some more mundane but important short-term goals and projects.
Supervisors hope to include pay raises, more money for road repair and a new county web site in the 2014 budget that starts October 1.
They’ll start those discussions in earnest — especially dollar amounts and pay raise percentages — during budget talks next month.
County leaders say the rapid growth in county property values the last two years and the anticipated growth in the next three years will significantly increase the amount of money each millon the county tax rate generates. That in turn should pay for the increases without a tax increase.
The big jump is caused in part because several of the fee-in-lieu tax agreements such as Severstal Steel and PACCAR are coming off the books, meaning those companies will now pay full taxes on their property values.
More space for E-911 and emergency management dispatchers and training tops the capital projects list.
Community centers in Caledonia, Sand Road and Concourse Road also are on the list. As much as $900,000 in interest from the county’s hospital trust fund would pay for those.
Work on each could begin by early next year but county officials cautioned that when it comes time, more money for operations must be allocated to the county’s parks and re department to staff and maintain the facilities and offer programs there in partnership with local community groups.