News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Overton County Executive Steven Barlow and Livingston Mayor Curtis Hayes want to team up on a special census for Overton County.
Barlow said if the census pushes the county into the next population tier it could bring in up to $98,000 in additional funds. The County Commission voted on Tuesday to allow Barlow and Hayes to work together to explore the census.
“On the agenda was to give me permission to work with the city mayor and of course this would help him out too,” Barlow said. “It would do county-wide and involve the city, and again he gets more money per person that lives in the city.”
The last census in Overton County was done in 2020. Barlow said if the population has grown around 200 citizens since then it could boost them into the next population tier. This increases funding from the federal government and provides more opportunities for grants. Barlow said he believes it will be between $11,000 to $25,000 to conduct the special census.
“That money would be made up in the first year that we done this,” Barlow said. “We would make much more than that. So it was just another way to bring income in without having to raise taxes.”
Barlow said the county currently gets around $200 per person residing in the county.
Barlow said he first presented the idea to the board at the start of the year after attending a conference. He said the county had a sales tax auditor persuade the board to move forward with the census.
“The commission didn’t really want to talk about it when I brought it up back at the first of the year, but the sales tax auditor came in and showed just how much money it would bring in,” Barlow said. “Of course, I didn’t have those figures then.”
Barlow will have to bring the information he and the mayor collects back to the commission, and they will have to approve to move forward with the census. The Livingston Board of Alderman will also have to approve the census.
Several Upper Cumberland communities considered a special census after COVID, worried that the pandemic led to an under counting of population.
