MOUNT VERNON – Knox County Commissioners told Mount Vernon Rotarians during a meeting this week that the County took in more sales taxes in 2020, perhaps because of the pandemic.
Commissioner Teresa Bemiller started the State of the County presentation in the virtual meeting. She said sales tax is the largest source of the County’s General Fund revenue, with the $9.7 million for 2021 making up 51% of the budget.
The County was behind in its sales tax projections for March, April and May. But good months for the rest of 2020 ended with $816,000 more in sales tax than in 2019.
“We attribute this to the fact that many of the people in our county who might shop outside of the county at brick-and-mortars stores or shopping online, and that sales tax came back to the county and car sales,” Bemiller said.
CARES Act funds helped pay Sheriff’s Office and Jail salaries and benefits. The $3.5 million in federal funds also supported county IT infrastructure upgrades. The $400,000 reserved for small businesses enabled the County to award up to $10,000 each.
“We did hear businesses say without that money they would not have been able to stay open,” Bemiller said.
The pandemic slowed Land Bank activity.
“Probably the biggest thing that did happen for the Land Bank was that we acquired the former Siemens campus, which is now called Cooper Progress Park,” Bemiller said. It has 47 acres of land and 670,000 square feet of existing buildings.
The County renovated the Central School building to house its Veterans Office and the Board of Elections. Air conditioning units that were removed for renovations were installed at the dog shelter.
A new maintenance facility opened in 2020.
“Our maintenance guys basically had their equipment sitting outside during summer, and in the wintertime we had things still sitting outside,” Pursel said.
By replacing 3,000 faulty meters in Apple Valley, they expect to recoup the costs over a five- to 10-year period, Pursel added.
As of January, the County took emergency management duties under its umbrella, including funding. Timely reporting will be the result to the commissioners, enabling them to provide a quicker response time.
The County employs more than 300 people but did not have a Human Resources department until 2020. Another new department was Information Technology, Pursel said.
Another agency that came under the commissioners about a year ago is Knox Area Transit, which averages approximately 9,000 riders monthly despite the pandemic. Drivers are needed.
