A budget cut for Henry County’s libraries was reversed to save the system from losing much more money from other sources.
The vote by the Board of Commissioners at its April 2 regular meeting increased library system funding by $115,000. That amount is equal to the 5-percent cut in the fiscal year 2019 budget that was approved by the board last year.
Officials warned the commissioners that if this action had not taken place, Georgia Public Library Service could immediately cancel the system’s eligibility for both state and federal grants, support service, and in-kind services due to being non-compliant with state requirements. The Board of Regents, which administers state and federal grants to public libraries, requires that local funding be equal to or more than the previous year with the lone exception that cuts are consistent with other county departments.
Officials noted that there is no legal way in place for the library system to charge for service or generate its own revenue. “We are entirely tax-funded,” as one official put it.
In addition to the $2.3 million in local money currently begin received, the system gets around $3 million in state and federal funds. The county is required by law to provide “basic library services,” with the other funds providing for “enhanced services.”
In other business, the board approved a new body art ordinance that was updated to bring it in line with modern practices and other jurisdictions across the state.
County attorney Patrick Jaugstetter said that previously an artist would have to get a full body exam and present the results to the Board of Health before getting a permit. Henry County was the only jurisdiction with that level of screening, as most areas only required testing for blood-borne diseases. Applicants can now issue certification proving good health or show a legitimate religious reason for objecting to that kind of screening.
Another aspect of the new ordinance is that it allows a visiting artist to get a permit to work in someone else’s studio.
The Board of Health actually grants permits, Jaugstetter said, but having this ordinance is a good thing because county enforcement can get behind it.
The commissioners received their annual report on tourism activity and revenue at the April 2 meeting. Laura Luker, director of the Henry County Convention and Visitors Bureau, said that her agency received $361,725 in 2018 from its 2-cent portion of the county’s 5-cent hotel-motel tax. That means the county’s portion was $542,500.
The CVB’s income must be spent on tourism, convention and trade show promotion. The county’s portion has no such restrictions. While the county and the city of Hampton collect the hotel-motel tax at the 5-cent rate, the other three cities in the county charge 8 cents.
Luker said the CVB spent $649,265 in 2018 promoting the county and its cities, getting an almost 2-1 ratio of benefit to cost.
In 2017 tourists spent $283 million in Henry County, generating $7.92 million in local tax revenue and contributing $64.4 million in resident wages, a savings to local residents of $282 per household. Numbers for 2018 have not yet been released.
But Luker cited a very recent example of tourist activity in the form of a huge amateur baseball tournament that took place in the county in mid-March, fielding 362 teams. She said 221 of those teams came from at least a 90-minute drive away, meaning they were likely to spend the night. It is estimated that those participants spent $1.8 million in the county that weekend, with hotels more than 90 percent occupied. The previous weekend’s occupancy was in the 70-percent range. The extra activity amounted to about $60,000 in sales tax and hotel-motel tax, Luker said.
