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The Cumberland County tax rate will remain the same for the upcoming fiscal year. During their Tuesday, April 29 meeting, the board of Cumberland supervisors majority voted to keep the rate at 60 cents per $100 of assessed value, with Bryan Hamlet as the only vote in opposition. Hamlet 

As for the county budget, there was just a couple slight changes from the version posted earlier this month. Back at the Tuesday, April 22 public hearing, multiple principals and staff from the public school system had requested a slight increase in funding. There was just a difference of just slightly over $127,000 between what the county staff had proposed and what the school district was asking for. During that hearing, the county board had asked Cumberland Administrator Derek Stamey to go back and take another look, to try and find ways to make the numbers fit. He came back on Tuesday with $127,082 extra that could be given to the schools. While that won’t completely fill the gap, Stamey said, it will help. 

“That will allow them to make some adjustments within their own budget,” Stamey said. “Some class sizes will need to be adjusted to accommodate this as well.” 

Part of that funding came from eliminating a proposed new position in the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s office. The Cumberland Sheriff’s Office, as we reported earlier this year, is working on a grant application to get body cameras. If they are successful, state law requires the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s office add a person to manage and review the footage as needed. However, that grant is not guaranteed and at the board’s previous meeting, Hamlett had suggested focusing first on funding immediate needs rather than a possibility. 

A problem with health insurance

The issue of rising health insurance costs is something all counties and towns are dealing with this year and Cumberland is no different. During the April 22 public hearing, Stamey had explained that over the past five years, the county had absorbed all of the increases in regards to insurance costs. This year, Cumberland is seeing about a 12% to !3% increase in health insurance costs for employees, roughly a $29,000 difference overall. But instead of asking the county to absorb all of this year’s extra cost, Stamey recommended that Cumberland only pay for 50% of the increase, with the rest being absorbed by employees. In other words, the employees would see health insurance costs rise. 

Before adopting the budget on Tuesday, Hamlet suggested an alternative. 

“We have valuable assets in the people employed by this county, in many cases irreplaceable with the knowledge, skills and abilities that they bring every day,” Hamlet said. “We have people that wear many hats in the positions that they’re in. I don’t think anybody could argue that anybody currently on staff is overpaid. If anything, I think we could argue for what they do and what’s expected of them that they’re underpaid. When I look at certain allocations in this budget, I feel that we don’t have our priorities in order.”

Instead of asking employees to pay more for their health insurance, Hamlet suggested Cumberland take the money from another part of the budget. 

“I look at a Parks and Rec budget of $339,000 for a department that I don’t really think the community really sees a huge benefit from,” Hamlet said. “I just think that there’s too much money in a department that has a minimal benefit. I think the costs outweigh the benefits. When you look at the overall spend and the benefit it brings, I feel that there are funds there that could be better used elsewhere.”

And so, he made a motion to take $29,000 from the Parks and Rec budget and use it to fully cover the increase in health insurance costs for county employees. 

“You bring up a very vital point in regards to the health insurance,” said Board Chair Erika Tyree. “The cost of living is not going down. And health insurance is a very vital piece.”

It was pointed out, however, that the $339,000 mentioned by Hamlet isn’t the actual Parks and Rec budget. It’s a combination of Parks and Rec and contributions to the library. Staff members said the Parks and Rec budget on its own stands at $152,219 for the coming fiscal year, with $123,000 of that for salaries and benefits. If the $29,000 is taken out of Parks and Rec, that will leave $94,036 for the next fiscal year. By a unanimous vote, with John Newman abstaining, the supervisors voted to take the money and fully cover the health insurance increase. 

Cumberland supervisors move forward 

Cumberland supervisors thanked the staff for their work on this year’s budget, of which the majority is based off of property taxes. Back in the April 22 public hearing, Stamey had pointed out that concern, saying “the county is very much a one-legged stool when it comes to revenue. Almost 60% of our revenue comes from general property taxes, heavily dependent on real estate.” 

Cumberland supervisors acknowledged that on Tuesday, asking for patience as they work on finding a path forward. 

“We’re trying to do a lot with a little,” Hamlet said, saying sometimes tough cuts have to be made. “At the end of the day, I think about every citizen in this county. When their costs go up, they have to decide about certain comforts in life they have to bypass, because they have to take care of necessities.” The same thing applies with the county budget.