County sets preliminary levy at 3.5 percent, hearing set Dec. 3
The
While the county could have set "the true levy" at 1.2 percent, or
County Administratrator Trish Harren stated that there were also increases to county program aid of
Since 2009,
With that decision, this freed about
"Because of the visionary thinking for paying off the jail bond, the county is in a good position to accommodate in the budget for the rising cost of insurance and other budget increases," Harren said. "We didn't want to pay a 5 percent interest rate, when the average interest rate in the market is between one to two percent."
In order to pay off the bond and avoid a higher interest rate payment, the county had to pull
If the county board hadn't approved paying off the jail bond last year, then the preliminary levy would have been set much higher at about nine percent, Harren said, which would cover budget increases and expenses, but would have cost taxpayers more.
"That's why we're setting this for a 3.5 percent levy increase as opposed to the 1.2 percent," Harren said. "We want to be able to have some cushion and have some cash be put back into our reserves."
What also helped save money for the county was the reorganization of the Health and
"It's a really good year," Harren said. "We're really pleased that we could have such a low levy increase. Doing this helped free up our funds and be able to cover additional budget expenses."
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