Commissioners work budget to avoid rollback

Like many entities, Jack County Commissioners are working on their new fiscal year budget right now and are having to make some tough decisions.

Because of a $206 million reduction in property tax values over last year, county officials are being forced with the possibility of raising taxes. The court must cut about $57,000 to get the tax rate below the rollback rate and about $425,000 to get it below the effective tax rate.

Expected income from last year to this year is expected to drop about $668,000 while expenditures are expected to go up just more than $1 million.

“We have to pay more in taxes just to break even,” County Judge Mitchell Davenport said during a budget workshop last week.

One of the major drops in income comes from the county clerk’s office which received $310,000 in income during this year but is expecting less than half of that in the coming year.

The county is also making a major increase in its Aid to Charity account from $66,000 last year to more than $120,000 in the upcoming fiscal year. Part of that is coming from a required cost of living increase to retired employees, which accounts for around $55,000.

Monday, commissioners began meeting with department heads to see if any additional adjustments could be made. Because of the anticipated shortfall, departments were asked to make six percent cuts across the board. The cuts amounted to about three percent overall, Davenport said.

To read the complete article, see the Aug. 12 edition of the Herald-Gazette.