“We need to find ways to fund more public safety, more police officers and firefighters,” says Mayor Glenn Jones.
It's a budget crisis that has the City of Port Wentworth looking at the city's millage rate and other cost cutting measures.
They've already laid off employees and are not allowing police who live out of city limits to take home their vehicles.
It’s stark contrast to the previous year.
“When we saw the monies coming in we have warehouses popping up everyday so we had no idea,” says Jones.
But a problem was brewing. As Mayor Jones explains it all centered on an IKEA warehouse, which is not even in city limits.
“For a three year period the tax assessors were taxing inventory taxes and distributing it to the City of Port Wentworth that never should have happened. Number one they are exempt and they never should have been giving it to us.”
It's a mistake Jones says he didn't learn of until the assessor’s office started withholding money from the city.
“When I first got the information I was aggravated because how could something like this, how an office could let something get past them for three years.”
Part of the problem is that cities do not receive a detailed bill from the Tax Assessor’s Office, so they have no way of knowing who they're receiving taxes from. It’s something Port Wentworth hopes will change in the future, and in turn prevent similar issues.
Now the city is paying the price, close to six hundred thousand dollars.
Money they counted on but now need to cut out of the budget and take away from important services like police and fire.
“Coming with growth you have additional crime that we are not used to.”
But tough time lay ahead for the folks in Port Wentworth as they work to balance the budget.
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