Robbinsville – The Graham County Board of Commissioners considered important improvements from taxes, received money and water for the county on Tuesday, Nov. 21.
Occupancy tax
The board approved a resolution supporting reform of the room-occupancy tax.
The resolution states that the Graham County Board of Commissioners may levy a room occupancy tax up to 3 percent of the gross receipts from rentals within Graham County and Graham County District G.
District G will remit the net proceeds of the occupancy tax to Graham County Travel & Tourism. The department will deposit 100 percent of the proceeds of the room occupancy and tourism development tax will be deposited into a special fund. Travel and tourism shall use at least 2/3 of the funds to promote travel and tourism in Graham County.
District G will also use the remainder for tourism-related expenditures.
Graham County District G is a taxing district consisting of the parts outside the incorporated areas of the county, created by Senate Bill 154.
Abatement fund
Graham County received $9,124.20 from the National Opioid Abatement Trust II for local abatement funds.
The local abatement funds received 80 percent or $4,680,363.74 of the total amount to distribute for North Carolina, $180 million.
The local abatement funds went to each county in North Carolina and Graham County received about 0.2 percent of the funds.
The trust was created from Mallinckrodt plc, a pharmaceutical company that manufactured and marketed opioids, along with other affiliates, but went to bankruptcy court on Oct. 12, 2020 in the District of Delaware to address their opioid liabilities. Mallinckrodt entered into a restructuring support agreement with attorney generals for 50 states and territories, according to nationalopioidabatementtrust.com.
The opioid crisis has had a unique impact on all states, so the distribution of the trust estates are strictly used to abatement efforts to reduce future effects of the crisis through treatment and other programs.
The agreement requires state and local governments to collaborate, according to ag.idaho.gov.
Courthouse
A new juror monitor system for the Graham County Courthouse was presented to the board to review.
The jury-management software package is called Genesis. It will allow Graham County to automate the jury process from summons to when a juror is paid in full.
The board briefly discussed new flooring for the clerk’s office, but did not come to a decision on it.
According to project manager Jason Marino, the best choice is waterproof planking and to remove the existing tile. The installation of the flooring would take about 12 days to accomplish.
County clerk Kim Crisp commented that it would be very expensive.