County warned of possible budget cuts
Staff writer
Marion County may not be able to save up for future projects, may have to reduce employee insurance coverage, and may have to do away with a shift supervisor position when adding a third full-time ambulance, county commissioners were told Friday.
Administrator Tina Spencer presented nearly finished line-item details of a revenue-neutral budget, the top lines of which are being published as a legal notice in the Classifieds section of this week’s newspaper.
Line-item details will continue to be worked out before the full budget is adopted at a public hearing at 12:30 p.m. Sept. 15 at the courthouse, Spencer told commissioners.
“We may have to lease-purchase the new Peabody ambulance building,” Spencer said, noting that such an arrangement might subject the project to a protest petition and, if successful, a referendum.
“It’s going to be a tight year,” commissioner Kent Becker remarked while reaffirming support for revenue neutrality, which would freeze the county’s property tax collection at this year’s level.
Spencer told commissioners they might want to look at possible cuts in budgeted support for such things as the county fair and various social service agencies before or during their formal budget hearing.
Commissioner Clarke Dirks recommended reducing salaries paid to commissioners.
“We’re asking all these other departments to make cuts,” he said. “We need to lead by example.”
Commission chairman Jonah Gehring agreed about leading by example, but no action was taken to cut commissioner salaries, which have remained the same since adding two commissioners and a county administrator.
“We’ll still be able to tweak things,” Gehring said.
Spencer estimated that $2.4 million would be available under the revenue-neutral budget for special projects in the coming years.
The proposed budget calls for a tax rate of 69.482 mills, down 8% from the current tax rate. Property tax bills are not likely to shrink, however, because of increased valuations.
On a typical home with a fair market value of $100,000, the tax rate would result in taxes for county purposes only of $803.18.
Combined with levies from other tax units, the total tax bill on such a property for a home in the hill area of the City of Marion would be $2,370.94.
In all, the county is seeking $13,215,104 in property taxes in a budget that would authorize $31,534,770 in total spending, up 6.3% from this year.
In other business Friday, commissioners:
- Appointed Ben Bebermeyer to fill a vacancy as Risley Township clerk.
- Opted to let Quails Forever work out details of two requests for youth and disabled hunting on 160 acres at the county’s former landfill.
- Learned that overpacked patching on 290th Rd. near Lincolnville was being ground down.
- Expressed concern about a “pretty scary” $18,000 decline in sales tax receipts that Dirks suggested represented people driving out of the county to make purchases because there were not enough businesses within the county.