Hancock County Council: 4/1/26

MEETING: Hancock Co. Council/budget comm

Date: 4/01/26

Recorder: Terry Bynum

BACKGROUND:

Provide relevant links and/or context for the meeting.

SUMMARY OF SIGNIFICANT AGENDA ITEMS AND KEY POINTS

These meetings are very free flowing, with a lot of crosstalk.  The bulk of this meeting was from tax consultant Greg Guterraz.  

He updated on 2026 G.O. bond.  Originally, they wanted to put the bond out in April or May–but since we’re in the middle of a war, interest rates have gone up, and interest in bond issues has gone down.  He’s now looking at August/Sept.  He’s asking the commission to come up with their list of capital expense projects for the bond.  They’re looking at 6.2 to 6.5 million. 

   They are also still talking about a 2 or 3 per cent raise for county employees in 2027, and the tax consultant is projecting a 9% increase in health insurance premiums.

Prosecutor is wanting to add a 3rd party company to store and work with data.  Council approved a 5 year agreement for about 150K total, that will handle 10Tb of data.  Pending commission approval, and legal clearance.

Prosecutor also asked for an additional $200K for attorney services for the year–much of it for what he called an “outlier” trial–a 10 day trial in front of Judge Davic, which resulted in 4 convictions. 

Guterraz also informed council of Regional Wastewater District application for State Revolving fund loan for a new wastewater plant in Maxwell.