Clay County Budget Committee has sent its recommended budget to the full commission for approval.
Mayor Dale Reagan said this year’s budget includes progressing on one major long-term project: the county’s jail.
“The Fire Marshal has gone over the plans and there were a few things that needed to be done so that’s gone back to our architect and engineering group and they’ll send that back,” Reagan said. “And then hopefully it’ll go to the USDA and hopefully the USDA will put their stamp of approval on it and then we’ll hopefully be ready early this fall to look at getting this project out to bid.”
Other capital projects include continuing work on the Mitchell Street Industrial Site and upgrades to the solid waste department. Reagan said that the department is working to find additional grant funding for the work.
Reagan said another big change to the budget comes from the new tax rate. He said after property appraisals this year, the budget committee suggested a new rate of $2.60, the first time the tax rate has changed in 14 years. The rate previously sat at $3.10. He said the state-certified rate was $2.36, which would have brought in the same revenue as the previous rate.
“Our expenditures have certainly gone up and I know we’re not the only ones a lot of counties around us are seeing increases due to inflation because of the fuel, and also because our ambulance contract increased 19 percent this year so there are a lot of increases this year,” Reagan said. “So we have to take everything into consideration and make sure our expenditures don’t exceed our revenue. That is one of the things the budget committee is very serious about.”
The County will hold a public hearing on both the tax levy and the budget on August 8th. Reagan said the county will vote on both at the August 15th meeting.
The post Clay Budget Committee Recommends County Commission’s Budget Approval appeared first on News Talk 94.1/AM 1600.