On Tuesday evening, Mason County Fiscal Court presented an Occupational License Fee in a public meeting. This will affect the employees of the county and anybody who works or operates a business in Mason County.
After Mason County Judge-Executive Owen McNeill opened the public meeting, Mason County Treasurer Kim Muse began her presentation on the Occupational License Fee in Mason County.
According to Muse, an OLF is a payroll tax that taxes the gross wages of employees that work in Mason County. This is regardless of the employee’s legal address. The OLF only applies to the employee’s location of work, it does not apply to where the employee resides. There are different levels of taxation that will occur, based on where an employee works.
If an employee works outside of the city limits and in the county, their employer will withhold 1.01 percent of the employee’s gross wages to submit to the county each quarter, producing $318,000 in revenue. If an employee works inside the city limits, their employer will withhold 1.01 percent of the employee’s gross wages to submit to the county while also withholding 1.99 percent of the employee’s gross wages to submit to the city each quarter. This will produce $3,282,000 in revenue. According to Muse, all funds deriving from the OLF will be paid to the county and placed into the county’s general fund to cover expenses such as daily operating expenses and road projects.
According to Muse, there is no specific information regarding whether or not self-employed citizens or those who work remotely out of the county but their employer is based in MC will be subject to the OLF or not.
McNeill informed the public of an upcoming decrease in state resources and financial support. Though the state currently provides money, funds cannot be transferred from department to department. Funds can only be transferred within the county’s general fund.
“I feel like Mason County is at a crossroads,” said McNeill. “We want to see where we will be tomorrow, and in the future.”
Muse said the county is able to input three major tax revenues. These include property tax, insurance premiums, and an OLF. An OLF is the only tax not currently in place for Mason County.
According to Muse, 84 counties in the state currently have an OLF in place. Mason County is not the first among them to propose this idea.
Mason County has experienced a decrease in the number of funds for a few reasons. According to Muse, road construction in recent years brought a large dent in the county’s funds. Workers and resources have been a majority of this cost. In addition to road construction, COVID-19 left the county’s funds smaller than before. After the initial wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, Mason County Jail took a loss of $900,000 in revenues. Inmate programs and labor, such as cleanup and garbage disposal, were no longer allowed to be in action following the virus. This caused an additional cost for Mason County.
In addition to those causes, there are general increases in funds that have been occurring in Mason County for a few years, according to Muse. Dead livestock removal costs have doubled since 2016.
According to Muse, Mason County is not able to transfer any money from one budget to the other. There are funds that cannot be touched once they are distributed. Of those, the landfill budget is one of them. The landfill budget is $6,844,500. Mason County cannot redistribute those funds to where they are needed. Though Mason County has a $25,000,000 budget, only $11,000,000 falls into the non-restricted funds.
Muse said the OLF will do good things for community members, but it will be a hard loss regardless of the situation. The OLF will allow Mason County to continue to contribute and support community groups and programs, maintain the level of service community members are used to, maintain county roads to a high standard, retain all employees to a living wage, continue the recycling program, improve workforce numbers, continue to remove dead livestock for local farmers, allow the court to make financial decisions without sacrificing the quality of services, allow funding for future projects, continue to support the quality of life, and continue to fund the Volunteer Fire Department’s insurance.
In order for any of the above to continue, the OLF is necessary. According to Muse, Mason County has wanted to raise wages for employees for a while. With the OLF, it will be more likely this will happen in the future.
Without an OLF in place for Mason County, there will have to be losses and cuts. According to Muse, some of the first cuts to occur will be to close Mason County Jail. If it comes to laying employees off, there will be a loss of 30 to 35 percent of employees.
In February, the Mason County Fiscal Court will meet again to move forward in the OLF timeline. At the meeting, there will be an ordinance’s first reading. Following this in another meeting, there will be a second ordinance reading and possible approval. After approval, the information will begin to be input and notices will be sent out to local businesses. In March, the information will be input finally.
On April 1, the OLF will be fully effective. In July, the first quarterly payment will be due. In October, the second quarterly payments are due.
For questions or comments regarding the OLF, community members may reach out via email to info@masoncountykentucky.us or through the Mason County Fiscal Court Facebook page.