“We’ll build this plane as we fly it”.  That pretty much sums up the Cumberland County Commission meeting last night.  More ad-libbed than a structured meeting.  We’ll start with the bottom line first. The Cumberland County Commission voted in a three-cent property tax increase last night. Passed the Sheriff’s budget complete with raises, tabled a $2400.00 across the board pay raise for county employees [CORRECTION:The Cumberland County Commission did approve pay increases for employees that include sanitation and general government workers. The pay raise will total $2400 annually. The commission plans a study of surrounding counties for comparison and if it is found that the increase exceeds comparable counties, then any future raises would be frozen.]  The Commission voted down a one time offer of $459,000 to the school board for text books and new roof for North Elementary.  The Commission also voted down an amendment to the county’s personnel policy in regard to establishing a welfare benefit to certain county employee retirees who retire after 30 years of service to Cumberland County.  But before all those resolutions were taken up, there was a public hearing scheduled at 5:30 before the official meeting. The courtroom was filled with citizens who had made the trip to the courthouse with hopes of expressing their opinion. Problem was, the PA system didn’t work. There is a sound system with mics for the Commissioners and a wireless mic for audience speakers but, of all times, the sound system was down.     Then another surprise – it was announced by Commissioner Rimmer that anyone who wished to speak  should have submitted a notification five days in advance to be heard.  That didn’t go over very well at all.  Most felt that since it had been advertised as a public hearing – the public should be heard. However, several people present were allowed to speak….most in opposition to a tax hike.  Once the official meeting began, one of the first announcements made was by Finance Director Nathan Brock that there had been an error made in the calculations by the Property Assessors office in the anticipated property tax revenue collections and that the Finance Department had just been made aware of the error.   That error would change the overall fund balance projection.  Of course that bit of information threw off the numbers in the budget – but a sheet was handed out to correct the error.  Commissioner Rimmer asked that the tax rate resolution be moved to the end of the agenda – and it was.  After all other resolutions were dealt with, it came time to vote on the county’s budget for the coming year. The budget passed – before a tax rate was voted on.  Final item on the agenda: the very unpopular ten-cent property tax increase. Commissioners voted – it failed.  Well you can’t have a budget without setting the tax rate.  That’s when the meeting came unraveled.  What to do next?   Because there were some alterations to the original budget as presented to the Commission,  a few of the members, particularly Commissioner Hassler, wanted to wait until a new, revised document was prepared before voting to set the tax rate.  Then Commissioner Rimmer made a motion to vote on a five cent tax hike instead of ten since the school money was taken out.  It failed.  Next, a motion to recess the meeting and reconvene Tuesday afternoon with the hopes the Finance Department could re-do a final, revised budget with all the changes.  It failed.  People started making comments from the gallery about that time, some saying the Commission should stay there till it was fixed…some offering different advice for resolving the dilemma. After all the confusion, facts, figures and opinions finally settled down – the Commission had whittled the tax increase down to just a three cent tax increase resolution – it passed.