The White County Budget Committee proposed increasing the property tax rate to $1.57 per $100 during a Monday night meeting.
Commissioner Kyle Goff said the tax rate was originally going to be $1.70, but commissioners agreed that was too high. Goff said the committee made multiple budget cuts to get to the current number. Goff said a big factor in the new budget are employee salaries, which would increase more than 15 percent.
“We’re almost doing this retroactively to make up for some years that the county employees didn’t get a raise, or it was just a two to three to five percent COLA increase,” Goff said. “And then also, adding some longevity pay and then some education incentives.”
Goff said the average raise for White County employees is some $5,334.
District 6 Commissioner Roger Mason said he wanted to do the right thing with this budget.
“It affects me like it affects everybody else,” Mason said. “If the right thing was to fund the things that the county needs to fund, we need to fund the things the county needs to fund.”
Last year, White County passed a deficit budget. White County has not seen a property tax increase in several years.
The budget also add four new sheriffs deputies. Officials said White County has not added a new deputy since 2006. Additional funding would also be added to the Highway Department.
“We pour about $700,000 dollars into paving,” Goff said. “It costs $150,000 to pave a mile of road, so we fund the department 0.5 percent of the money it would need to pave every road in White County.”
The approved budget proposal was not the only one on the table. A proposal to make the property tax rate $1.50 per $100 was also discussed, but it ultimately did not pass.
Several citizens voiced concerns over the tax increase, and some claimed their taxes doubled after this year’s reappraisal. Several commissioners said they’ve made all of the cuts they could make.
The proposed budget will be considered at the June 16 full commissioners meeting.
