Jackson County approves $350K in anticipation of FRL exit
The Jackson County Public Library continues to dominate not only the physical but also the political landscape of the county.
Cory Vaillancourt photo
Jackson County commissioners have taken a huge financial step toward withdrawing from the Fontana Regional Library system by voting to use $350,000 from the county's fund balance to begin purchasing equipment and services needed to operate a standalone county library — after passing a tax increase last summer and after the county’s auditor reported tightening financial constraints during a Jan. 20 meeting.
Last June, Chair Mark Letson was the lone vote against withdrawal from the eight-decade regional partnership over concerns about the availability of LGBTQ materials in the Jackson County library.
The debate has been protracted and vitriolic, and has finally resulted in anonymous threats being sent to local media and library supporters by proponents of the withdrawal.
Letson also voted against approving the $350,000 expenditure, which comes from the county’s fund balance — essentially, a savings account. Commissioner Todd Bryson, who is not seeking reelection this year, was joined in voting for the expenditure by fellow commissioners Jenny Hooper, Michael Jennings and John Smith, who is seeking reelection this year.
The $350,000 expenditure does not obligate the county to finalize the withdrawal, but rather ensures readiness if the July 1 deadline holds.
“My feelings have not changed,” Letson told The Smoky Mountain News Jan. 21. “You can debate books all day long. I don't have a degree in literature. I'm not a physician or a pediatrician or a psychologist, where some of these books that are in question have been written by those professionals. I got into politics to help all citizens, not to remove services, but to expand some of these services — like the health department, the library’s footprint in the community. I feel like they’ve done nothing but been an asset to Jackson County.”
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Initial estimates provided by Jackson County last year pegged the additional cost associated with withdrawal at about $500,000 annually; however, Letson now believes that the actual cost could be more than triple that.
“It's better to let FRL as an organization manage the libraries, from a cost perspective. They're able to find more grants, not that we don't have that potential, but in year one, we're looking at $400,000. Year two, we're looking at $1.7 million, or $1.4-$1.5 million,” he said. “So you're really talking about a compounding little cost center there. To put that into perspective, that's about a penny on the property tax rate.”
At the same time, commissioners heard during the meeting that the county’s broader financial picture has grown more complicated.
When commissioners passed the fiscal year 2025-26 budget last June, they lowered the tax rate substantially, from 38 cents to 31 cents.
The revenue-neutral rate — calculated to bring in the exact same amount of revenue as in the previous budget — was 26.89 cents.
Despite the decrease in tax rate, the average Jackson County taxpayer has seen a substantial increase in their property tax bills due to skyrocketing property values in the county.
The county’s previous budget was $93.8 million, but the current budget has ballooned to $107 million. Since 2021, Jackson County’s budget has grown by roughly 49%.
During the Jan. 20 meeting, Matt Braswell, an audit manager for Martin Starnes & Associates, presented commissioners with 2025 audited financial statements through June 30, 2025.
Braswell noted an 11% increase in public safety spending, to $25.73 million, and a 6% increase in health and human services spending, which now tops $20 million. The county’s unrestricted fund balance, however, decreased from $40.6 million to $37.4 million, a difference of $3.2 million.
In terms of expenditures, the previous fund balance represented 43.3% of annual expenditures. Now, it represents 36.3% of annual expenditures. In the event of a disaster where the county can’t receive funds — like the recent cyberattack on the Town of Franklin, which briefly crippled county payment systems — a healthy fund balance is critical.
“Roughly 8% is one month’s reserve on hand,” Braswell said. “So you can see the decrease from 2024 to 2025, so [there is] roughly about 4.5 months’ supply on hand of unassigned fund balance in your general fund.”
Additionally, in the event of a natural disaster like Hurricane Helene, a county may be called upon to come out-of-pocket for immediate expenses that may not be reimbursed by federal disaster management agencies for years. Haywood County is currently out about $16 million. Given the failures of Congressman Chuck Edwards and Helene Recovery czar Michael Whatley to deliver meaningful recovery funding, full reimbursement will take years, if it happens at all.
The county’s fund balance still compares favorably to other counties, both in terms of general fund expenditures and population. According to the Local Government Commission, Jackson has the fifth-highest fund balance among eight counties with comparable general fund expenditures between $90-$100 million, and ranks sixth of 11 counties with populations between 40,000 and 50,000 people.
Thankfully, Jackson County avoided the brunt of the $60 billion in damages from the storm; County manager Kevin King told The Smoky Mountain News that there was around $7 million in damage to private residential and commercial property, but only about $1 million in liability to the county, mostly due to increased staffing costs.
Despite the vote to spend the $350,000, some in the community still hope a compromise could emerge before July 1, potentially allowing Jackson County to remain in the Fontana Regional Library system and avoid what Letson thinks will be millions spent in perpetuity on an independent library system.
Those discussions, however, have yet to produce a clear alternative path.
