It took two hours to decide, but the Oneida County Board Tuesday agreed to fund $2.2 million dollars worth of capital projects via the county's piggy bank rather than a loan.
The 13 projects included things like equipment for the Sheriff's department to highway construction to IT upgrades. There was a consensus the projects were needed. But the board was deeply divided where the money should come from.
One of the arguments came from Scott Holowinski of Sugar Camp:
"..So will sit here today saying how can we fix our problem? Lets just borrow some money and tack in on top of the tax roll. We're going to have the same problem 3-4 years down the road. The only way I see this working is we borrow from the general fund and cut programs..."
The general fund is the mandated reserve each county has should an emergency arise. One side felt the county would be all right taking the money out of that fund rather than borrowing. The other option was to borrow the money from the state at a cheap rate and keep the General Fund intact. Supporters of that move included Rob Jensen of Crescent...
"...We're all sitting here surprised that we might have to borrow money. I'm not. I want to see an option that gets us through 2020 and gives this county board an opportunity to look at the next five years and come back with the 2021 and we might have to bond and borrow..."
The folks opposed to using the general fund felt long term it would hurt the county as the state might lower the counties bond rating and future loans could cost more than the short term, low-interest state loan. The supporters of taking the money from the general fund said county spending must be addressed next budget to make up for pending shortfalls.
The vote to borrow the money failed while a follow up resolution to borrow the money from the general fund passed by a wide margin.
In other action, a move by Supervisor Jim Winkler to include a prayer at the start of the Oneida county board meeting failed Tuesday. The board routinely has a moment of silence that generally acknowledges service members and other groups which is followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. Winkler's resolution would have included a moment of silence, followed by a prayer or invocation, then the pledge. That motion failed by a 15-4 margin.
