Begin forwarded message:

From: Kathleen Miglorie <miglorieforcommissioner@gmail.com>
Date: May 5, 2026 at 14:26:29 EDT
To: JOHN SAMS <samsjl@earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: FY 2026-27 Proposed County Budget



Dear John,

Thank you for your email and good questions. As you likely know, the County Manager will delve deeper into the budget in two upcoming meetings (May 28th and June 4th). There is also the public hearing on the budget on June 1st.

I agree that: 

• A homeowner whose valuation jumped 30 or 40 percent sees a "tax cut" from 69.5¢ to 60.25¢ and still pays more. That's not a misunderstanding — that's what "5 cents above revenue-neutral" means. The Board owes a clearer explanation of what that 5¢ is buying.

 • The Timbermill question is a fair one. My understanding is the money is currently being used to pay down costs of the new highschool, but there is no written policy on where that money goes. This is something to be considered.

 • The County appropriates about $1M a year from fund balance and never actually uses it. The audits confirm it every year. That inflates the headline budget number without changing what gets spent. It also makes year-over-year comparisons like the kind you're making harder than they need to be.

The challenge in holding spending flat at last year's level, from what I can tell, would not account for the high school project, sheriff retention, Medicaid caseload, and employee healthcare -- all real pressures.  

From my understanding, a big chunk of the recent growth is the Holmes High project moving through the books — that's a one-time capital shift, not permanent operating growth. The real operating increase is closer to 9% a year, which is still worth questioning, but it's a different conversation than "the budget doubled."

Things I believe we should explore further:

• Make every above-inflation increase get justified in public, in plain language

• Get a written Timbermill allocation policy on the books

• Defend revenue-neutral as the starting point and call out every cent above it

I realize any tax increase creates additional hardship for a lot of our residents. I hope, if elected, asking more questions and increasing transparency will help us all.

Thanks again for your thoughts and please keep sharing them with me!

Kathleen

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On Sun, May 3, 2026 at 4:29 PM JOHN SAMS <samsjl@earthlink.net> wrote:

Ms. Miglorie,

Since you are running for County Commissioner District 2, I thought you might be interested in an email I sent to the Board (which is also posted at www.robinsams.com/tax.htm).  Should you be elected (I hope so even though I can’t vote for you) you will be making decisions on county tax rates, and some history might be useful to you and possibly a campaign issue.

Cordially, John Sams

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NOTE:  No sitting Commissioner has responded to my open letters/email correspondence