Sales tax revenue in Henry County is down a little bit over this time last year, but it is significantly higher than seven years ago.
That information was shared at the May 5 regular meeting of the Henry County Board of Commissioners. Bruce Holmes asked about figures for specific time periods relating to the current SPLOST and the previous one.
Revenue reported in April of this year, when collections began for the new SPLOST that was approved by voters last November, totaled $3,164,427. The amount reported in April 2013, when the previous SPLOST began, was $2,480,261.
But it was no great surprise to the commissioners that the latest number is about $211,000 less than what was collected at this time last year. The drop of about 6 percent is attributed to the month-long lag associated with the COVID-19 shutdown.
One dollar amount that has gone up in recent weeks is the salary of the county’s top administrative official. The board voted unanimously at the May 5 meeting to approve a new three-year contract for county manager Cheri Hobson-Matthews, whose precious contract had expired a month or so earlier. She got a 14 percent raise from $154,000 to $175,000 annually.
The new agreement includes a boost in vacation to six weeks per year. Most other benefits are similar to those offered to county employees in general. She can be suspended with full pay and benefits at any time by a majority vote of the board. Termination without cause will result in a lump sum payment of three months salary and all accrued vacation time; the county has no obligation to pay any severance for termination with cause.
In other business, the board approved an intergovernmental agreement with the Atlanta-region Transit Link (ATL) Authority to fund the development of the Henry County Transit Master Plan. County transit director Taliem Salters said that the plan will assist in identifying all strategies for the county’s public transportation system including future developments and capital priorities.
“A stakeholder and technical committee will be formed, which includes not only individuals from the county and city level, as well as citizens who want to be a part of the planning process,” said Matthews. “We definitely need citizen involvement throughout this process.”
The authority will provide professional and technical services for the development of the transit master plan and completion of the project. Funding for the project includes the county’s portion of $130,000 which is available in the Transit Department’s budget, coupled with funds in the amount of $520,000 allocated from the Federal Transit Administration.
The May 5 meeting’s consent agenda included a resolution accepting a $1,000 donation from Greg Norred for Henry County Animal Care and Control; a resolution accepting a $10,969.75 equipment grant from the Georgia TIME (Traffic Incident Management Enhancement) Task Force to provide 75 traffic cones, 25 road flare kits, and 26 barricades; a resolution approving an emergency management communications lease agreement with the city of Hampton for city-owned tower space at 233 Richard Petty Blvd.; and a resolution approving the purchase of wetland and streambank credits for the McDonough Parkway Extension, a SPLOST IV major road improvement project.
