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This week a team of county financial advisors and even one county commissioner are face to face with bankers and bond insurers. Meetings are scheduled to take place Tuesday. County leaders hope to work out a payment agreement with Wall Street before a deadline next week. The outlook is bleak. The bond insurers have asked the county for more cash, even going so far as to request that a fee be imposed on people who use septic tanks instead of the sewer system. Commissioner Bobby Humphryes calls the plan ridiculous saying, "It seems like they are trying to drive us toward bankruptcy. We are doing all we can to work out a deal and do all we can and they keep coming up with all these crazy proposals." Commission President Bettye Fine Collins is opposed to any new fees. She says, "In my opinion that constitutes a new tax upon the people and I think I have made that very plain. I do not support that." At least one commissioner doesn't think the idea is all that bad. Commissioner Shelia Smoot says everyone in Jefferson County should have to help. She believes, "The folks who are not paying and those who are cheating the system finally will have to do something to sustain it because they are benefiting from it everyday."
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