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County tax levy goes down

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Equalized property valuation 

is up, so tax rate goes down

By Ted Pennekamp

 

At its annual budget hearing Tuesday morning, the Crawford County Board approved of a 2019 budget which will have a total tax levy of $8,263,948, which is down from the total levy of $8,345,622 of 2018. The total levy is a decrease of 1 percent. The last three years have had an average increase in levy of just .2 percent. The average increase for the last five years is 1.4 percent. The average for the last 15 years was an increase of 3.1 percent.

During his budget presentation, county board member Duane Rogers, chair of the finance committee, pointed out that the value of all real estate in Crawford County has increased for the sixth consecutive year. The equalized property valuation in the county increased from $1.124 billion in 2018 to $1.162 billion in 2019 which helped to lower the tax rate from $7.42 in 2018 to $7.11 in 2019.

A tax rate of $7.11 means that the owner of a property valued at $200,000 will pay $1,422 in property taxes for county purposes. The owner of a $100,000 property would pay $711 in property taxes for county purposes.

Rogers noted that the funding for the Sheriff’s Department is $2,575,927 for 2019 which is an increase of $129,376 over 2018. The five-year average has been an increase of 2 percent.

The Highway Department will have funding of $2,836,980 for 2019, an increase of $66,738 over 2018’s budget. The five-year average has been an increase of just .3 percent. Rogers praised the Highway Department for continuing to function well even though expenses go up beyond their budget increase each year.

The Highway Department, the Sheriff’s Department and the Health and Human Services Department combined consume 68.9 percent of the county’s budget. All other departments combined consume 31.1 percent. The Highway Department is 28.9 percent, the Sheriff’s Department is 26.2 percent and the Health and Human Services Department is 13.8 percent.

At Tuesday’s hearing, the county board also approved of a wage increase of 2.5 percent for all county employees, effective January of 2019.

The taxpayers’ share of health insurance for employees went down by $15,816 from 2018 to 2019.

In order to balance the 2019 budget, the county board approved of dropping the general fund from $3,387,456 to $2,730,456. The general fund had increased by a total of $516,161 over the past five years. The Treasurer’s Office has benefitted the general fund by reducing delinquent taxes by $255,354 since 2011.

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