SCHUYLER - Colfax County Board adopted a decreased tax levy and increased county budget for the next fiscal year when they met Tuesday morning.
The Colfax County fiscal year (July 1-June 30) has an increased operating budget of $19,197,042 for 2015-2016, approximately a fourth of that budget coming from property taxes.
The new county tax levy is .33179, which is lower than last year's, at .35133. Board Commissioner, Jerry Heard, says the levy dropped two cents because evaluation of the county improved enough, due to increased land sales. This increase gave the county enough revenue to drop the tax levy.
http://media3.floodradio.com/columbus/2015/09/Edited-3.mp3
Jerry Heard, Colfax County Board
"Evaluations are set at a three-year period," Heard says. "So if our land value goes down, we will probably have a year-and-a-half or two years before it starts to drop, but if it drops drastically, we still need money to operate the county."
Heard also says managing the General Fund budget for the county is unpredictable because there are so many other funds, such as the Road Department Fund, that can take away from the General Fund.
http://media3.floodradio.com/columbus/2015/09/Edited.mp3
"The hardest part about the budget is probably our Road Department, because if we have a flood or a disaster on the roads, that takes a lot more money," Heard says. "If we have a bad winter, like we did a couple years ago, we over-budget on equipment repairs and so fourth because they are running all the time. Plus the overtime and the help sitting out there all the time. So the one biggest fluctuation probably for us, as far as the budget, is the road department."
Heard says the biggest issue the citizens can be happy with at this point is the decrease in the tax rate, though he says the bad thing is still the heavy weight of the education budget.
http://media3.floodradio.com/columbus/2015/09/Edited-2.mp3
"70-71 percent of tax money goes to the schools. We had a gentleman come in, the superintendent of the schools in Schuyler, and to educate a child is about $10,000/student. If you go to Howells…$14,000-$15,000/student, if you go out west, it's $25,000/student because they don't have the population in the schools. So the school budget is a big issue."
Fore more information on the county budget, contact Colfax County Clerk, Rita M. Mundil, at 402.352.8504.
↧