Hart County board votes against giving more money to animal shelter

HART COUNTY — The Hart County Board of Commissioners voted Tuesday against providing the Northeast Georgia Animal Shelter more money in the fiscal year 2010 county budget, and the shelter may temporarily close.

The board voted in February to cut the county’s annual allocation to the shelter from $35,000 to about $30,000 because of financial troubles in a poor economy. Commissioners conducted a public hearing Tuesday, and the first draft of the fiscal year 2010 budget allocates about $30,000 to the shelter.

John McGarity, a member of the shelter’s board, told board members the shelter has an $18,000 budget shortfall and may close from sometime in November to Jan. 1, 2010, because of a lack of money. The Hart County board is the only government entity the shelter serves that is not providing $2.50 per capita to the shelter based on population, McGarity said.

The shelter receives contributions from Hart County, Franklin County and all of the cities in those counties. McGarity said the Hart County board made a verbal agreement 10 years ago to give the shelter $2.50 per capita, and he said that would translate to $47,000 in fiscal year 2010.

“Everybody is paying what we ask for except for Hart County,” McGarity said at the Board of Commissioners meeting. “We ask based on population.”

Commissioner Joey Dorsey said the county already provided the animal shelter with its first-quarter check. He proposed giving the animal shelter its second-quarter check early to prevent it from closing and working with other government entities to work on a funding solution in the future.

Dorsey’s motion failed 2-2, with Commissioner R.C. Oglesby and Commission Chairman Dan Reyen in opposition. Commissioner Brandon Johnson was absent from the meeting.

Dorsey said after the meeting that he was disappointed his motion to help shelter officials failed.

“They provide a service to the county and a very efficient service,” he said. “We are trying to help them out. It is cheaper to support what you have than building one from scratch.”

Oglesby said at the meeting that it didn’t make sense to give the shelter its second-quarter check early when the shelter may temporarily close.

Nearly $1 million in cuts are part of the first draft of the Hart County 2010 fiscal year budget. The county is projecting a $1.7 million budget deficit for the 2009 fiscal year, which ended Oct. 1, said Jon Caime, county administrator.

To make up the deficit, the draft of the Hart County 2010 fiscal year budget has $800,000 worth of cuts. The county will need to take an additional $600,000 from reserve funds to pay for property reevaluations, and the source for the remaining $300,000 needed to make up the projected $1.7 million deficit has not been determined, Caime said.