The Anson County Board of Commissioners voted 5-2 to approve its budget for the 2009-2010 fiscal year during a workshop meeting Thursday, June 18. The budget maintains the current tax rate of 89.4 cents.

Chairwoman Anna Baucom and Commissioner Harold Smith cast the two votes opposing the adoption of the budget. Baucom stated that she had some concerns about what the North Carolina legislature might be expecting from counties and wanted to wait until the General Assembly recessed for the summer to make a vote, while Smith had several issues with different items on the budget.

Public hearing

The Thursday night workshop was preceded by a public hearing on Tuesday night, during which several representatives from Burnsville Learning Center appeared before the board, asking for whatever funding help the county could provide.

Carol Smith, who operates the center, stated that it has not received support from the local government for several years now. She went on to provide information about some of the programs and services the center provides, such as a summer program for children in Anson, Stanly, Richmond and Union counties. "We started out providing meals for maybe about 200-300 children," Smith explained. "Over the years, which is about eight years now, we've reached the goal of about 1,000 children a day. We provide them with breakfast, lunch.... the boys and girls that are on the free and reduced lunch program."

The center also provides structured activities while students are out of school in the summertime, as well as meals and homework help during the school year.

"This program has provided not only food for the children and supervision, it's also provided part-time jobs for seniors that are on fixed incomes and also college students," Smith said. "Last year, the program alone provided jobs for approximately 30 part-time employees, and most of them were right here in Anson County."

"This year," she added, "our budget has been cut drastically. Right now, it doesn't look like we'll be able to do our summer program."

In addition to its programs for children, the center also provides food for seniors and needy families in conjunction with Second Harvest Food Bank.

"Burnsville Learning Center really needs the county's support," Smith went on to say. "We have kids playing on playgrounds after hours with no supervision. We are not able to provide financial support to have someone there. We are volunteers, and you can only ask a volunteer to do so much."

Elsie White, a retiree who volunteers at the center, also spoke to the commissioners. "It is a good program and it is a good place to work," she said. "You feel like you're helping somebody. It gives me great joy that it helps the children. You should see the look on the children's faces when they come to Miss Carol's center, as they call it."

Fellow volunteer Viney Daniels added that she has worked at the center since 2001 and several of the kids told her that if the program was ended because of lack of funding, they would still come. "It has been a safe place for our children in the summer, and a safe place for after school," she said.

The Burnsville Learning Center gets most of its funding through grants, the largest of which is the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services, Smith said, but that funding has been cut this year. The center also does a lot of fundraising throughout the year. When Baucom asked what is the center's typical budget, Smith responded that it was approximately $124,000 over the past year.

The commissioners provided several funding options, such as local foundations and trusts, but did not promise any money from the county.

Commissioners voice doubt over budget specifics

After the public hearing closed at Tuesday night's meeting, Vice Chairman Ross Streater asked if the budget included raising taxes. Baucom replied, "I don't think the legislature is through with us." Baucom added that she was troubled by "the notion of the county having the responsibility of building and maintaining secondary roads."

Baucom voiced the same concern at the workshop meeting Thursday night, saying that she wasn't prepared to approve the budget that night due to her worries over what kinds of funding responsibilities the legislature may put back on individual counties.

Baucom was also concerned with the lack of funding in the budget for South Piedmont Community College (SPCC).

Commissioner Smith then took the floor, saying he was concerned about the projects that had been funded by the Golden LEAF Foundation. "What was the criteria and who supervised it?" he asked of the projects that were approved for a total of $1.7 million in funding. He cited the $500,000 for Anson County Schools and $556,380 for SPCC, among others.

Baucom explained that meetings, which were open to everyone in the community, were held last year for organizations interested in procuring funding from Golden LEAF.

Commissioner Smith repeatedly asked Baucom how involved she was in the decision-making process, and she repeatedly told him that a group from Golden LEAF had prioritized and approved the projects, after several community meetings were held in Anson County.

Commissioner Russell Sikes stated that he'd attended some of the meetings. "Golden LEAF, they don't give the money to a central agency to filter out ... they give it to the individual organizations."

Commissioner Smith then said he was going to ask for an investigation because he felt the money was not handled properly. He contended that the Board of Commissioners should have had some oversight into how the money was divided up. "Somebody is wrong on these monies here," he said.

Baucom asked if Smith was suggesting she had been the one to make the decision. He responded that the representatives from the Burnsville Learning Center had come before the board Tuesday night, and they were more deserving than some of the organizations that received Golden LEAF funding.

Baucom and Sikes, as well as Commissioner Jarvis Woodburn told Smith that the Golden LEAF meetings had been open to the community and that hundreds of people had attended. Golden LEAF narrowed down the list of potential recipients of funding to 10, and approved just seven.

Smith still stated that he was "very disappointed" in who got the funding and felt that Anson County taxpayers were disappointed, as well.

County Manager Vance Gulledge finally stepped in, explaining that the Golden LEAF representatives had had the county representatives "jump through hoops" throughout the process and that many people had dropped out along the way, including the Burnsville Learning Center that Smith was concerned about.

Finally, the discussion moved on and Commissioner Dr. Jim Sims voiced concerns about a nurse practitioner position that was being cut from the budget. He contended that the position, which is worth $5,000, was not expensive but if it was cut the board would end up paying more in the end, through increased doctor fees. Sims' motion passed 5-2, with Streater and Smith opposed.

Earlier in the meeting, the commissioners also approved purchasing an ambulance and vehicles for the sheriff's office but not an additional rescue vehicle for Anson County EMS. They also approved more overtime for 911 staff.

Just before the budget was adopted and the meeting adjourned, Sims told Gulledge, "This is the tightest, closest, most conservative budget I have ever seen, and I commend you for it. ... I think the people of Anson County ... should feel good that [we] did not raise the tax rate."

Smith at that point added that he felt there were not enough tax breaks for the people of Anson County. "I think this budget is too high," he said. "And I know ... that you didn't cut it enough. I commend you but I don't think you cut enough from it."