Greene County residents most likely won’t see tax hike
WAYNESBURG – The Greene County Commissioners are expected to vote today to adopted their tentative budget for the 2006 fiscal year that again includes no tax increase at the county level after holding rates steady last year despite considerable increases in spending. The tentative account is about $500,000 more than last year’s budget totaling $12,353,900, according to Greene County Chief Clerk Gene Lee.
The plan would hold the tax rate steady at 6.42 mills, or $64.20 for every $10,000 in assessed property value for Greene residents.
But if the tentative plan is adopted and the tax rate holds firm, the commissioners will again be forced to dip into a reserve budget that now has dropped under $2 million after pulling $550,000 from the account to balance the spending plan last year.
But the county is hopeful that the ongoing economic and development projects in the area will continue to generate more funds to help hold the line on taxes in the future.
The $12.3 million spending package includes funds earmarked for the proposed county bike trail, upgrades to the Waynesburg Airport and county matching money for state and federal grants for the Greene County Community Center swimming pool project, Lee said.
“We are still trying to tweak it,” Lee said Wednesday.
“Over the next month we will try to whittle it down and get a few more thousand out of it.”
According to Lee, the county has a current fund balance around $1.8 million, and noted that some money will be taken from the reserves to balance the 2006 spending plan.
“We will probably have to eat into it a little,” said Lee.
He noted that early projections call for about $350,000 of the money in the fund to be used to balance the coming year’s account.
Last year’s final budget was $11,834,813, a little more than $519,000 less than the 2006 spending package.
The commissioners are expected to approve the tentative plan at today’s regular meeting.
Additionally, the county’s chief assessor, H. John Frazier will update the commissioners today on the property values across the county.