Supervisor concerned with costs
Published 12:13am Thursday, February 2, 2012NATCHEZ — Adams County is financially sound, but some money issues will need to be addressed, Board of Supervisors Vice-President Mike Lazarus said Wednesday.
Lazarus was a guest speaker at the Natchez Rotary Club, and District 5 Supervisor Calvin Butler also addressed the club.
One aspect of its finances the county will have to address is health care. The county has self-funded insurance, and Lazarus said the county is scheduled to spend $2.2 million on health care this year, approximately $10,000 per employee.
Approximately 200 employees are on the health care plan, which has a $500 deductible. However, Lazarus said that deductible is waived if the employee seeks treatment at Natchez Regional Medical Center.
“The county employees have the best insurance that $2.2 million can buy,” he said.
The problem is that the health care costs are more than the county has allocated for them.
“Our health care costs are eating us alive,” Lazarus said.
“We are going to have to raise deductibles, charge more for family participation.”
The county is currently taking bids for a new health care plan, and Lazarus said the elected officials are seeking advice from health insurance professionals who aren’t submitting bids for the plan so they will be able to craft the best possible solution.
But while county employees have some of the best insurance around, they don’t necessarily have the best pay, Lazarus said.
When the Natchez-Adams School District raised taxes, Lazarus said the board of supervisors adjusted their millage downward so that county residents wouldn’t feel an increased tax burden.
The problem, he said, is that he feels that salaries in the school district are disproportionately high.
“We have people working for the county who haven’t had raises in years,” he said.
Another issue the county faces is the fact that it runs a deficit on waste collection, a deficit Lazarus said was nearly $200,000.
“Some people just will not pay their garbage bill,” he said.
Some counties have a millage to support waste collection, Lazarus said, and while someone with a house valued at $300,000 would save money on their waste bill, some of the county’s larger properties — for example, the Corrections Corporation of America prison — would face a tax increase of nearly $100,000.
“It’s complex — it frustrates me,” he said. “You can’t have uncontrolled spending.”
Lazarus also offered a solution to collecting fines owed to the county. He got the idea, he said, from the City of Natchez.
The sheriff has recently asked for more deputies, and Lazarus suggested that the deputies be used to pay for themselves.
“When he is not responding to a call, that deputy can be knocking on doors and saying, ‘You owe a fine,’” Lazarus said. “When people know you are serious about collecting, they start paying.”
Likewise, he said that Adams County’s courts could stop giving grace periods for the payment of fines.
“In Jefferson County, they don’t have this problem,” he said. “They say, ‘You’re fined,’ you either find that money right now or you’re going to jail. Most people have an uncle or a brother or a neighbor who will find that money for them pretty quick.”
When Butler spoke to the Rotarians, he stressed the need for officials to keep their eyes and ears open for opportunities for economic development.
For example, Butler said when he worked at Johns Manville, the company produced a product made of recycled newspaper, and he said the company would pay $20,000 a week to bring in the paper.
“Adams County should have taken advantage with the surrounding counties to start a recycling program to put people to work,” he said.
“(Area) leaders didn’t come to meet with the company to find out what could be done.”
Butler said he doesn’t want to see another opportunity like that slip by, and he will use his past experience with industry to coordinate with businesses and find creative solutions.
“We need to ask, ‘What can we do to bring in people (in addition to) the jobs they bring?’” Butler said.
