AMERICUS — The topic of government consolidation was at the forefront of the Sumter County Board of Commissioner’s Agenda Setting meeting Thursday. A concerned citizen, Larry Odom addressed the Board with a written letter to the citizens of Sumter County stating his concern that the County’s revenue shortfall will be soon be passed on to the taxpayer. The opening line of the letter read “your taxes are fixing to jump?”

Odom told the board that in the present state of the economy, citizens could not take on the burden of paying higher taxes. Odom proposed that government money could be saved through consolidating the City and County governments and eliminating duplicate jobs. Odom cited neighboring counties that have began a process of consolidating governments to improve their economic stature and asked that the Board of Commissioners “dig deep and look and see what can be done.”

Chairman Brent Williams told Odom that the Board of Commissioners could only approve to study into consolidation if the Board made a motion to do so.

Commissioner Al Hurley addressed Odom’s comments saying he “was neither for or against consolidation,” but said that “we need to find out exactly what we are getting into before we move to legislation.” Commissioner Rick Davis addressed Odom’s worries of a tax jump saying that “we have got to find and determine new revenue streams. In the past six years, we have seen a 40 percent increase in taxes and that was in a robust economy.”

Davis also said that he did not think that the elimination of duplicate jobs in the City and County would be a huge savings, nor did he think unification would guarantee lower taxes. Commissioner Andrea Brooks echoed Davis saying that she was in favor of a study, but the Board “could not promise lower taxes,” through consolidation.

As the Board addressed Odom’s comments, the overall sentiment that emerged is that a study into consolidation would be worth a look. Williams that a study into unification would determine one of three things: that the governments should not consolidate, the government should consolidate some services, or there should be a complete consolidation.

Commissioner Randy Howard expressed that he thinks Americus and Sumter County would benefit from consolidation, but it would be “best to go slow, ask necessary questions and be educated on the issue.” Howard also reminded that citizens Plains, DeSoto and Leslie also pay taxes in Sumter County and could be skeptical of an Americus-Sumter consolidation.

Commissioner Davis provided some perspective on the unification of the County and City governments, saying that “unity is having the same vision even though we may disagree on how to get there.”

“From an economic development standpoint there is so much competition out there that we have to get our act together,” said Davis.