BOLLINGER CO. STRUGGLES DESPITE TAX GROWTH

MARBLE HILL -- While records show sales tax revenue in Bollinger County nearly doubled from 1989 to 1990, officials insist the county is still struggling financially.

A half-cent increase in the sales tax rate, approved by county voters in 1989, caused sales tax revenue to jump from $166,034 in 1989, to more than $321,000 in 1990. Sales tax revenues in 1991 are estimated to be $320,000, according to county records.

From 1989 to 1990, property tax revenues in the county fell by about $15,000. They are expected to fall by another $7,000 in 1991, county budget calculations show.

Before the sales tax increase, the county was about $185,000 in debt. Voters did not approve a similar sales tax increase proposal in 1988, and a proposed property tax increase, put before voters in June 1990, also failed.

County Commissioner Jerry Woodfin said for the past year and a half, the county has concentrated on paying off the debt and increasing the staff in some county offices, which in some cases had been cut down to one worker.

He said the additional sales tax revenue has helped the county become financially stable, but the commissioner said not all funding problems have been solved.

"We've made some substantial improvements, but we've only got so much to work with," he said.

Woodfin said the county sheriff's department is in need of more funding, but because the 1991 budget has already been drawn up, it would be difficult to make changes now.

A member of the department's advisory committee, former county commissioner Marshall Stroder, said funding the sheriff's department should be the county's top priority.

"The county says they're out of money," Stroder said. "But whenever you let law and order go, everything else is going to go, too."

County Clerk Diane Holzum said all county offices have struggled because of budget problems.

Holzum said she has not received a raise in five years. She said most other county officials haven't either. Holzum said county salaries are for the most part at the state's allowable minimum.

"As a matter of fact, our county has no benefits for its workers, no health insurance, nothing," she said. "Any extra expense, (the county) just can't handle."

Holzum said the increased revenue from the sales tax has led the county back to where it was before the debt problems of the late 1980s.

"The sales tax kept us from going further in the hole," she said. "We had to make a lot of cuts, and we're just increasing our budget slowly back to where we were before we went so far into debt.

"It's better," she said, "but that's because we're working hard at it."

Monday: Deputies are footing the bill for making police calls in the county.