Register and trustee urge staff raises as commissioners weigh small property-tax increases to shore up fund balance

County officials on May 28 heard presentations from the trustee and register offices and held an extended discussion about employee pay-setting and the county’s structural budget gap, including possible small increases to the property-tax rate to replenish fund balance.

John March Sony, Coffee County Trustee, told commissioners his office processed more than 1,200 tax-relief applications last year and reported a collection rate of about 96% (roughly $36.7 million collected of $38 million in billed taxes). Sony said his office has four staff members and requested a 12% pay increase for those employees (estimated at about $16,000 total) to retain experienced personnel and avoid turnover. He also outlined equipment and workstation upgrades and a server replacement included in his budget submission.

Donna, the county register, briefed the committee on steady and growing recording activity and the specialized experience required to process deeds, liens and plats; she told commissioners her office’s fee revenue and workload are rising and that staff salaries range roughly from $38,000 to $52,000. Donna said her office is implementing software with an AI-assisted indexing feature to speed document processing and protect records, and she emphasized privacy improvements in a proposed counter redesign.

The conversation broadened into a county-wide budget strategy: finance staff presented the projected effect of a 2% versus a 3% across‑the‑board salary increase (about $329,841 vs. $494,762 on the general fund) and a fund-balance snapshot showing a recurring annual draw of roughly $600,000. The chair urged commissioners to consider small, incremental property-tax increases—described in the meeting as single‑digit penny changes (2–6 cents per $100 assessed value)—to stop the recurring depletion of fund balance. Officials said the revenue-neutral certified rate from the assessor (Alyssa) must be known before any final decision; staff scheduled follow-up budget-capital meetings in early June to revisit the numbers and the certified penny value before full commission adoption.

No formal county-wide tax-rate change was adopted at the meeting; committee members directed staff to return updated revenue and reassessment numbers and left the possibility of a modest increase on the table as a way to restore reserves and cover recurring personnel and service costs.