Yount posits compromise of jointly funded programs


In a series of emails circulated today to members of the Henderson City Council, Henderson Mayor Clem Seifert, City staff, and County Commisioner Scott Hughes, Council member Elissa Yount offered a compromise alternative to funding joint City-County programs.

In the email, Yount proposed taking all of the costs of joint programs out of the budgets of the City and County. Each government would in turn set up a separate budget called “Joint Funded Projected”. The City and the County would then determine how much to budget for these projects.

In turn, the County would then set a tax rate for those joint projects and charge every tax payer in the County the same amount.

The City and County would work to determine the needs of each department and each department’s funding amount.

According to Yount’s proposal, 911 would still be managed by the County and the Recreation Department by the City. Other jointly funded departments would also retain their current management structure.

In an email response, Seifert called the idea “worth looking at”. He wrote that the City “could certainly pull those amounts out of the general fund budget, and pledge not to fund those programs with ad valorum tax dollars”. The mayor also wrote that finding revenues outside of ad valorum taxes to fund the programs would make the double-taxation argument “go away”.

Seifert indicated at the end of the email that he liked the idea.

Council member Garry Daeke also responded to the email, writing that he would like “to explore this more”. He also wrote: “Hope the county will entertain the idea.”