Supervisors: Clarke County not broke

By By Fredie Carmichael / staff writer
August 5, 2004
The president of the Clarke County Board of Supervisors insists his county is not going broke.
Paul Mosley, who represents District 4 in Clarke County, said even though supervisors have tightened down on their proposed spending plan for the next fiscal year that begins Oct. 1, there's no need for alarm.
Concerns about the county's economic situation arose earlier this week when Clarke County Sheriff Todd Kemp informed Lauderdale County law enforcement officials that his department was backing out of the East Mississippi Drug Task Force on Oct. 1 due to financial constraints.
One of the reasons for the county's decision to back out, Mosley said, was due to areas that needed to be cut within the sheriff's budget not the entire spending plan.
Meanwhile, District 5 Supervisor Tony Fleming said despite several local plant closings in the past two years, including Burlington Industries, the county has continued to see growth.
Fleming said more than $10 million in assessed property was added to county tax rolls this year.
Fleming said one of the reasons for supervisors' conservative approach to this year's spending plan is because of Duke Energy's protest to a property assessment of its old plant in Enterprise.
Fleming said the county appraised the property in January, while the plant was in production and days before Duke announced plans to sell some of its plants nationwide including the one in Enterprise.
Supervisors and Duke had originally agreed to a property tax of one-third of the actual cost as an incentive package the previous year aimed at luring the plant to Enterprise.
Clarke County assessed that one-third value at about $53 million in taxes. Duke later sold the plant for about $25 million and complained their property was assessed too high. They said the fair amount for them to pay in taxes was $3 million.
Regardless, Mosley said he believes Clarke County is poised for growth.