County finance, public works committees to discuss millage rates on Monday

The Saline County Public Works and Safety, and Finance committees will take up the topic of county millage rates when the members meet Monday at 7 p.m. in

Saline County Courthouse Courtroom 3.

County committee meetings normally begin at 6:30, however, the court opted to move Monday’s meeting back to 7 p.m. because of the Saline County Christmas Parade which begins at 6 p.m. that same evening.

The finance committee will vote to approve the millage rates set by each city in the county.

As Monday’s meeting is only a committee meeting, the ordinances will also have to pass the Saline County Quorum Court at a regular meeting later this month.

The millage rates for real and personal property will be set at 1.5 in Alexander, 5 in Bauxite, 3.8 in Benton, 3.2 in Bryant, 5 in Haskell, 4 in Shannon Hills and 5 in Traskwood.

The millage rates are approved by the city council each year as a procedural action. This year, the City of Bryant had to increase its millage rate because of potential budget issues. The 3.2 millage was recommended by the city’s administration after looking over the city’s finances,

Interim Mayor Rhonda Sanders told the council. “This is not an increase,” she added.

The city was required to adopt the new ordinances because, in August, the council approved ordinances setting the millage rate on real property at 3.0 and 3.8 on personal property.

However, the city was informed by the Saline County Judge’s office that the millage rates were out of compliance with the state constitution which requires both the millage rates on real and personal property to be equal.

Prior to August, the city’s millage rate was 1.9 mills for both real and personal property.

Sanders said the administration recommended setting both millage rates at 3.2 because that would allow the city to keep its budget for next year the same.

“If we dropped it to 3.0 then we would have to cut $150,000 from the budget immediately,” she said.

The finance committee will also consider

ordinance amending the county’s budget for 2023, aiming to address the needs of the Office of Emergency Management Department (OEM).

The OEM Director has requested a fund transfer of $9,000 within Fund 1000 County General to facilitate the purchase of a new vehicle for the department. This move is in response to the repair needs of two existing vehicles, with the plan to use trade-ins to obtain a reliable, used vehicle.