Members of the Jefferson County Delegation and city mayors from around the county are set to meet on Thursday. The meeting is scheduled to start at 2:00 Thursday afternoon at Fultondale City Hall.
Delegation Chairman Paul DeMarco says they will talk about ways they can work together to help the county deal with the financial troubles it is going through. Any solutions or plans that come from today's meeting will be in addition to a plan commissioners agreed to Wednesday that would bring back the .45% occupational tax. Commissioners will push for a bill to be brought up in the next legislative session to reinstate the tax that they say will raise about $60 million.
Commissioners say without a funding fix, they face hundreds of county layoffs. Commission President David Carrington says some services that are not mandated by law may be cut off soon whether they get the occupational tax or not.
"I don’t' think we want to wait around for 40 million dollars if we've identified some cuts; let's go ahead and cut,” said Carrington. “They're going to have to start picking up the tabs for things, things we used to do as a service can't be done anymore. State drivers licenses, all for cutting that off January 31st."
If the county stops providing driver's licenses that duty will fall to the state.
Commissioners say the $60 million that would come from the occupational tax would be helpful because they need to do more than just fill the $40 million hole; they need the extra funds to do things like open the Bessemer Jail.
As for other cuts, Jefferson County Manager Tony Petelos says the county will no longer help cities with their municipal elections. Petelos says because of layoffs, the county no longer has the staff to help. Employees from a number of county departments will have to help with the March 13th primary.
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