By Michael Howell
The County Commissioners officially adopted a FY 2016 budget and set the tax levy at 153.63 mills in order to raise the required $11,038,326 in property taxes.
Total appropriations for the coming year are $34,059,759, up from last year’s appropriations of about $30 million, with $9.149 million in reserves. About $4.5 to $5 million of the reserve funds sits in six different capital reserve funds and must be maintained for capital improvements, leaving $4 to $5 million to cover expenditures in the new fiscal year until tax revenue comes in.
This leaves the total requirement at about $43,209,000. $15.6 million comes from non-tax revenue such as the Justice Court fines, Clerk and Recorder fees and investments minus the payables and plus the receivables associated with the previous year. Another $16 million comes from resources available such as PILT and the Local Option tax. This leaves about $11,038,326 to be raised in property taxes.
This breaks down into an Aggregate Levy of 91.93 mills and an Entitlement Levy of 13.3 mills, voted levies including a Senior Citizen levy of 4.02 mills, a Valley Veterans levy of 1.15 mills, a Search and Rescue levy of 1.47 mills and a permissive levy of 13.11 mills for a total county levy of 124.98 mills. Add to this a 23.98 mill Road levy and two open space bond levies for 2.06 mills (from 2010) and 2.61 mills (from 2014).
The breakdown of the county’s Aggregate levy is:
General Fund——–30.66 mills
Facilities———- 8.92 mills
Bridges————– .77 mills
Weed—————- 1.41 mills
Fair—————- 1.44 mills
District Court—— 7.45 mills
Insurance———– 4.44 mills
Co. library——— .11 mills
Planning———— 1.29 mills
Mental Health——- 1.49 mills
Extension———– 1.06 mills
Public Safety——-32.65 mills
Old Court House—– .24 mills
