RB council says 'no' to development funding changes

By Staff
Melissa Cason
RED BAY – The Red Bay City Council voted to continue to support the Franklin County Development Authority, who is in danger of losing a big chunk of its funding should the legislature pass the bill to give the money to another agency.
The council voted unanimously to continue to support the Development Authority, which recruits new business and industry for Franklin County as well as assists current businesses and industries grow in the county.
Sen. Roger Bedford spoke out against the bill during the meeting saying Franklin County needs to aggressively recruit new businesses and industry in order to be ready when the economy takes an upward swing.
The house bill proposes that the revenue from the sand and gravel tax be reassigned to fix the roads instead of funding the development authority.
"The total budget of the Development Authority is about $200,000 with the tax," Mayor Bobby Forsythe said. "Without the tax, their budget would be around $50,000. The bulk of their budget is based on this tax."
Questions have arisen about what the tax was originally designated for. Some are concerned that a portion of the tax was originally supposed to go to fix the roads, but Bedford quickly corrected the issue.
"When we originally passed this tax, and designated where the money should go, we decided to give Franklin County something I did not have. That something was the Franklin County Development Authority to recruit new industries and assist existing businesses. One-hundred percent of it was to go for the Development Authority," Bedford said. "I feel like people had rather run over a few potholes in order to get to work than to not have a job to go to."
Council Member Brad Bolton echoed the same sentiments.
"We've got the funding in place [for the development authority]," Bolton said. "Let's keep it in place."
In other business, the council voted to:
The next regular council meeting will be held on Monday, May 4 at 7 p.m. at city hall.