For the second year in a row, Haywood County taxpayers can expect no increase in property taxes, thanks to increasing revenues and a substantial fund balance appropriation, but the county’s health care costs are starting to become nearly unmanageable. 

In a mirror image of a vote taken seven months ago, the Jackson County Board of Commissioners has voted to reinstate independent boards to oversee its health and social services departments. 

The Jackson County Board of Commissioners will likely hold yet another vote on potential changes to its health and human services departments during a meeting scheduled for 3 p.m. Tuesday, March 19, at the Jackson County Administration Building in Sylva.

It’s likely to be another tough budget year as Macon County commissioners are faced with a growing list of capital and security improvement needs, increased health care costs and stagnant property values.

Macon County Commissioners Jim Tate and Ronnie Beale and County Manager Derek Roland recently joined voting delegates from counties throughout the state to determine the North Carolina Association of County Commissioners’ legislative priorities for the 2019-20 biennium session of the North Carolina General Assembly. 

It’s not Haywood County Manager Bryant Morehead’s first budget, but it is his first budget in Haywood County. 

Following a series of closed session discussions, Jackson County has opted to cancel its $500,000 contract to buy a 5.61-acre tract in Whittier containing the old Pepsi-Cola plant, but it could still pursue the purchase at some point in the future. 

Jackson County got its first glimpse at what a reinvigorated Green Energy Park campus might look like when a preliminary master plan was presented during a county commission meeting Tuesday, Jan. 22. 

The Jackson County commissioners said goodbye to a longtime member, welcomed a new member and changed their meeting schedule during an organizational meeting Monday, Dec. 3. 

It was fitting that District Court Judge Donna Forga was on hand Dec. 3 to swear in the two new Republican commission members that will give the Haywood Commission, for the next two years at least, a first-ever Republican majority — her father Robert was the first Republican elected to the commission in 1994.