Good morning. I'm going to call to order the Lynn County Board of Supervisors meeting today.
We have a public hearing on proposed property tax levy for fiscal year 2025. First up, are
we going to? I'd make the motion to open a public hearing on proposed property tax levy
rate for fiscal year 2025. Second. All in favor, any further discussion? All in favor say
aye. Aye. Aye. First up, we have Sarah Barrows. Good morning, Sarah. Good morning, Sarah
Barrow's budget director. I do have proofs of publication for the notice that went out
in the Lynn newsletter, Mount Vernon, Lisbon Sun-Times and the Gazette. We also posted it
on all of our social media sites and on the Lynn County website. For the public hearing
I have had quite a few phone calls regarding more so the budget statement mailing that
went out I think then the notice that was published in the paper but have had a
lot of feedback from the public on that the various questions I've gotten are
you know first of all what what is this this is new what does this mean why our
tax is going up for the county what are the other jurisdictions going to do what's
my tax bill going to be things along those lines just to reiterate for the
public that's here this is new this year it's a component of the House file
718 that was passed that replaces the max levy Senate file 634 that we've done in
the past where we do an initial meeting to talk about what the levy rate what
the board is proposing to do with the levy rate the mailing that went out is
new it was sent out by the Lynn County Auditor's Office but does have
information from multiple taxing jurisdictions depending on where the
individual lives and the purpose of the mailing was to show what the board or city council
or school board was proposing to do with their tax levy.
It wasn't necessarily meant to be, you know, like a tax bill or anything like that.
Bills come out in August and those have the actual tax amount due.
We also have, you know, another meeting in April where we actually finalize the
budget so there's still a few more steps in the process before we get to A, a finalized
budget and B, a tax bill.
This public hearing we have prepared a PowerPoint just to address some of the questions that
I did receive.
I know you guys have had phone calls as well, some emails, whatever correspondence people
have sent in.
So hopefully this answers some of those questions and if not I'd be happy to touch on any
questions people might have. Do I do a question?
So our budget process begins in
November. It begins with a meeting with the Board of Supervisors to discuss and
set the different budget initiatives for the year and that it actually starts
with a public forum as well where the public can come to a 5 p.m. meeting and
you know voice any of their questions or concerns regarding the next year's
budget. Then in December and January we hold the departmental meetings. Those
are held Monday, Wednesdays and Fridays at 1.30 p.m. where the board meets with every
department with Don the finance director and myself and we discuss what that department's
budget what they're proposing for their budget for the next fiscal year. In February we
are typically finalizing the budget where the board gets to the point where they're
discussing can we fund any offers do we have to make any reductions and what are we
looking to do with the levy rate. Then we're in March here where with again with
the new house file 718 we mailed out the budget year statement for FY 25 this
compares the FY 24 tax rate with the proposed FY 25 tax rate for the county
the school and the city authorities and then we're here now at the public
hearing for that for that mailing and then in April we'll have our public
hearing on the total budget and adopt and certify the budget no later than April 30th.
Again, all of the notices for all of these meetings are posted in our three newspapers
on social media and on the website. I will note with the budget mailing there where it says it
compares the FY24 tax rate with the new proposed tax rate, one of the confusing elements of the
mailing which unfortunately the state did not allow us to make any changes to the mailing.
It was a it was boilerplate language every county across Iowa sent out the exact same mailing
It on the back side it compares a
FY 24 tax rate with a $100,000 home and then an FY 25 tax rate with a
$100,000 home and does not take into account that assessed values on those homes change
Either every year every two years
So I did want to just point that out that while it compares the tax rates
It does not compare a change in value or
With the rollback the same in both years. No, the rollback has changed as well
And I do have a slide on the rollback amounts as well. Thank you
So the FY 25 budget summary for just Lynn County, we don't we're not discussing the information for like the cities or the schools today
Just for the Lynn County portion
The levy rate proposed is proposed to increase from five point nine six to six dollars and seven cents
The rural rate, we're proposing a decrease from $2.71 to $2.63, and this does include
the reduction of $1 for rural residents from the local option sales tax allocation that
was voted on, and I have another slide in here about that allocation of lost.
The expenditure budget, so the expenditures are what the board is proposing to spend
for the fiscal year the expenditure budget is 157.1 million which is an
increase of 3.2% from the prior year that equates to an increase of about 4.9
million dollars and I've had questions on you know what does that for what is
that 4.9 million comprised of and it's primarily comprised of the
following five items we have increases in salaries and wages so for non
bargaining unit and confidential employees, those are budgeted at 4%.
Bargaining unit contracts for AFSCME, AFSCME Conservation, AFSCME EMA went up to 4%.
Bargaining unit contracts for PPME, Sargents, and Assistant County Attorneys went to 5.75%.
We did not need to include an increase for health or dental rates in the FY25 budget.
We also saw an average increase of 9% in our software contracts.
Those softwares that we use we literally cannot conduct business without them
and we're kind of at the mercy of the vendors on those increases.
Additionally, we saw increases in utilities.
We saw about 11% increase in our electric bills,
6% increase in gas and 5% increase in water.
In November of 2024, we will have a presidential election and there have been some costs related
to that election that went up that, you know, were required to have a certain number of
precincts or polling places or technology available.
And so those costs are unavoidable as well.
And then lastly, we had an increase in our debt service, Levy, and that is due to
the issuance of bonds from the voter-approved water and land legacy.
Yes.
And that was three cents three cents.
So in addition to the expenditure budget, which is what we are going to spend
We have a revenue budget, which is what we are going to bring in and we do have revenues other than property taxes
That I think the county works really hard to generate to you know supplement the property tax revenue that we get
Revenues actually increased by six point four percent some of that is the increase in property taxes
but then we also have a decent increase in investment earnings, camping revenue, and local option sales tax.
Local option sales tax revenue is budgeted.
3.8 million is budgeted for road construction, 1.9 million for conservation projects,
and 1.9 million in property tax relief for rural residents.
And again, that allocation was a voter-approved allocation to make that split.
But unfortunately in FY 25 we saw a decrease of 1.6 million in federal inmate revenue so
that we had to make up the board did make some cuts to the budget to address that decrease
in revenue.
And then lastly for the FY 25 budget there were no offers approved.
There were a couple million dollars in offer submitted but there were no extra funds available
and the board chose not to increase the levy further
to approve any additional offers.
I think you should say what an offer is.
So an offer is a request for a new initiative,
a new staff person, not necessarily a new vehicle.
We have a separate process to request a new vehicle.
But this would be like if somebody
and not a grant funded position.
This would be a general fund funded request
that is new to the department
or that is a new staff person.
And countywide we had no that we didn't we were not able to approve any of we correct
We're unable to fund any of those the request did come in and and obviously the board listened to those but
We didn't the funding wasn't there
As long as there are people here should I think it should also be noted on behalf of the sheriff's department
that
We were down to like nine inmates. I believe for the federal marshals. They weren't utilizing the whole
agreement that they agreed two years ago and so the 1.6 million was a little I'm
going to call it fictitious to begin with because it's based on inmates it's
based on inmates and then a per diem per inmate right but but we were receiving
far less inmates all the time so him giving that up or the sheriff's office
giving that up isn't the impact that it appears to be sure so
I also had
quite a few questions on the property tax process.
The process involves multiple different offices
at the county, at the cities, at the schools,
at Kirkwood Egg Extension, all those loving authorities.
But it does start with the assessment of property,
and that is done by either the county
or the city of Cedar Rapids Assessor
depending on where an individual lives.
Once those properties are assessed,
the auditor's office, the county auditor's office,
takes those valuations and totals them
by taxing jurisdiction and by class.
So there's multiple classes of property.
We have residential, we have egg, commercial, et cetera.
The Department of Revenue is responsible for looking
at those assessed values and determining what part
of that assessed value should be taxable.
We do not, if you have a $250,000 home,
we do not tax all $250,000 of that.
It is rolled back by a certain percentage each year,
which then helps to cap the state overall
in growth. This year the rollback was significantly different for almost every
class except for commercial then it has been in previous years and I have a
couple slides on that as well. The cities the schools and the counties all
hold their budget meetings to determine expenditures and their ability to
generate additional revenues like grants or charges for services. Again we
talked about our meetings start in December or in November excuse me and
go through February each jurisdiction is going to be a little bit
different. The amount of tax revenue that is needed is determined during those
budget meetings and we divide that into that taxable value. So the taxable value
is the assessed value rolled back by the state to a taxable value and then we
use that to calculate the tax rate. The tax rate is then what is applied
against that taxable value that and that creates a property tax bill. So
you have a taxable value, a tax rate, and then you get a tax bill. Once a
citizen pays their tax bill they do pay that to the Lynn County treasure but
obviously that's not all of Lynn County's money so the Lynn County treasure
then distributes that money to the various levying authorities like the
schools or the city so that everybody gets their piece of what was levied
against a property. And Sarah can I just add in here I had a couple people who
had questions and it ended up there were more questions on their
assessments and right now and I know this isn't necessarily the topic we're
having right now but for I received this from Jerry Witt our county assessor
that the appeal process for the 2024 assessments are now until the end of
April for people. I think it's just a good time since we're talking about
property tax process to just highlight that one more time that if if you can
only appeal your 2024 right now until April 30th but you do have that window
until April 30th right now. Right and so the the 2024 assessment will apply to
the FY26 budget. No. You have to wait till public comment. That might be but we
Okay, I'm just looking off what Jerry was and that information is available on the county assessor's website and the city assessor's website
But yes, that actually applies to the FY 26 taxes
So the period to appeal your assessment for the upcoming tax bill that's coming in August was last year
All right, can I just read this real quick the appeal period for the 2024 assessments is right now
But it will not change 2023 assessments. You need to contact our office the assessor's office
We will schedule an appointment for a walkthrough of the property if we have not had one in many years
Formal petitions are accepted at any time, but will be considered
untimely filed if received before April 2nd or postmarked after April 30th
And that's for anyone who doesn't live in Cedar Rapids. That's right outside of
municipalities that don't contract or
or the purview of the Lynn County Assessor.
So the Cedar Rapids Assessor is maybe different.
I don't know what the Cedar Rapids City Assessor is saying.
So if you live in Cedar Rapids,
you contact the Cedar Rapids Assessor.
Oh boy, this did not pass.
Okay, we're gonna skip that slide. What this pie chart is supposed to show, which I'm not
on mine, it's clear, but on here it is obviously not, is that Lynn County only gets a piece
of that tax bill so that we get about 14 to 16% of a resident's taxes. The other portions
go to, again, the cities, the schools. The schools typically receive about 38% of a property
tax bill. The cities typically receive about 42 percent and then there's some
miscellaneous levies that receive the other five percent. There are school
districts, Lin-Mar and others that have done significant bonding that may be the
majority of someone's tax bill. Could, it would vary by district. I believe
Cedar Rapids went down but I know Mount Vernon and college community went up.
So yeah, everybody's situation is going to be different. Ours is the smallest
portion. Ours would be the second smallest the miscellaneous levies would
be the smallest. But yeah I did receive some phone calls from people who were
curious about you know what's Prairie doing and stuff like that. On the budget
mailing are the phone numbers for those other jurisdictions and residents
would need to call those authorities to find out what they're doing with
their levy rate. I don't have that information. And so another you know
I would say the majority of the phone calls people were wondering you know
what is this going to do to my taxes?
And obviously, tax bills don't come out until August,
but there are some tools that you can use
to kind of figure out whether or not
your taxes would go up or down.
There's a tax estimator on both the county assessor's
website and the city assessor's website
where you can enter in your address.
It takes you to your property.
You can see your assessed value for multiple years.
You can see tax bill information for multiple years,
and then there's an estimator on there.
And in big letters underneath it says this is an estimate only, but it can give residents
an idea of what might be happening with their tax bill for the upcoming fiscal year.
The assessed value again is decided by the city or county assessor.
I'm not going to pretend like I know exactly what their formula is, but I do know that
they take market comps into consideration, homes that have sold in the neighborhood
or the area, to determine those assessed values.
for Cedar Rapids the average residential increase was about 15% and for non
Cedar Rapids so for the County Assessor it was an average residential
increase of 25%. In Cedar Rapids they are estimating for residential
properties only that about 66% of residential properties saw we'll see a
decrease in the Lynn County tax portion and about 34% of residential
properties will see an increase in the Lynn County tax portion. Again, that's
just Lynn County. Even if your Lynn County portion decreased, your whole
tax bill could go up because of something the city or the school did. For
the County Assessor's Office, they're estimating that about 24 percent of
residential properties will see a decrease in the Lynn County tax portion,
and about 76 percent of residential properties will see an increase in the
Lynn County tax portion. Supervisor Rogers touched a little bit on the
state rollback. The residential state rollback, which is determined by the
Department of Revenue for the entire state of Iowa, changed from FY24 to FY25.
In FY24, 54.65 percent of a home's value was taxed. In FY25, only 46.34
percent of a home's assessed value is going to be taxed. So that's this
pretty significant change and kind of counteracts some of the increase in the
assessed value. It's a big calculation that has a lot of moving parts. This is
just one of them that people would need to take into account. When you use the tax
estimator on the county assessor's website or the city assessor's website,
it does take into account the new rollback and shows you what that rollback
is. Those websites also take into account if you have a homestead exemption,
military, you know, any of those types of things added on to your bill or
taken away I should say. This slide is a little bit busy but this gives you just a very brief
overview of what might happen to again only the Lynn County portion of a tax bill depending
on how your assessed value changed. In the first example we have a 15% increase in assessed
value for City of Cedar Rapids residents which again that's the average they saw.
So in FY 24 the prior fiscal year if you had a $200,000 home and that home went up
to $230,000 you would see a $4 decrease in your Lynn County tax that you would
pay. Again that rollback plays a factor in that. $4 per thought or just $4
total. $4 in your tax bill. Lynn County portion only not the total tax
bill. Then in the county the highest assessed value that the county assessor
saw there were some areas of the county that saw a 40% increase in their
assessed value for those taxpayers again not in the city of Cedar Rapids and
Lynn County portion only could see a hundred and thirty seven dollar increase
in their tax bill on a two hundred thousand dollar home two hundred
thousand dollar home that went to a two hundred thousand two hundred eighty
thousand dollar value so we're taking to account the increase in value the
change in rollback and the change in the levy rate and that that comes out to
about 21 percent I did the same thing then for a 25 percent increase or a 5
percent decrease because there are some county assessed properties that saw
decrease in their home value for those residents they could potentially see up
to a 17 percent decrease in the Lynn County portion of their tax bill so
So it's just important to highlight that everybody's situation is different, assessed values,
the percent of change of assessed values could change between you and your neighbor.
It's not necessarily all of one city went up 40%, all of one area went up 25%.
It's very different.
And then again, each taxpayer has a different combination of tax rates depending on what
city and school district they live in.
But these are just four examples.
When we talk about egg and commercial, again, those values are determined by the county
and city assessor.
A little bit different for egg, but, you know, we're going to keep it high level.
For the county increase in agricultural properties, they saw an average of about 32 percent.
City of Cedar Rapids has quite a bit less egg properties, but they did have a 18 percent
in the egg properties that they do have.
The county saw an increase in assessed value in commercial properties of 18%,
and then the Cedar Rapids City Assessor saw an average increase of about 11% in commercial.
There's a state rollback for agricultural properties.
You can see that changed by quite a bit.
91% of those agricultural properties assessed value was taxed in FY24.
In FY25, that's only 71.84%.
So, another big change in the rollback by the state.
For commercial properties, there was no change in the state rollback from FY24.
The rollback is a little bit more complicated for commercial properties.
They actually get a residential rollback, so they'll only pay 46% of the burst $150,000
in value.
After that, anything above $150,000, they'll pay 90%.
But again, no change from FY24.
and then this is the same chart just for either an egg property or commercial
property with those same percentages that I just talked about farmland in the
county could see a 3.9% increase if their assessed value went up by the
32% and then in the city they could see a 7% decrease for commercial
properties in the county they could see a 19% increase if their commercial
property increased by 18% and then in the city 11% they could see a 12% increase again
that's only in the Lynn County portion of their taxes which is you know 14 to 16% of the total
tax bill.
Okay that was a lot of information. Do you guys have any questions or would
you like to add anything to what I presented? Well again Sarah and Dawn thank you so much
for all that you did this year to guide the board through really challenging budget decisions,
much of it a result of what we call House File 718, which really caps the growth or places
growth caps on municipalities and we experienced that this year where we grew 4.4%, but based
on legislation we were only allowed to keep 2.4%.
We had increases in utilities, increases in salary and benefits, marginal increases in healthcare and again a decrease in the rollback.
So there was a lot of pressures placed on this board to make some decisions where we I think ultimately ended up cutting about $2 million.
dollars if I'm if I recall correctly and adding about two million into the supplemental levy it was almost a
About it was a very balanced cut for
Certain services and to maintain certain level of services not just not even to grow just to maintain
And that was a decision that the majority of the board felt was appropriate
All these meetings have been open to the public
Starting from the budget forum all the way till today
Do appreciate people's questions. I know you've gotten calls. I've gotten calls my colleagues have all gotten calls
This is important. I think that this letter
Again was an unfunded mandate by the state
There was a very quick turnaround time the reason why I think people got it on Friday and we're having a meeting today
Is that was the legislative requirement? It didn't allow us any ability to change the language. We have to pay for it
Out of our own budgets. There's not money's provided
And I think it, while the idea was to create more transparency,
I think it also caused a lot of confusion.
And so hopefully the legislature looks at that
and maybe makes some improvements to it
if they require municipalities to,
or us to send it out on behalf of municipalities.
So again, I appreciate it.
I look forward to any comments that people might have,
but this was a challenging budget year.
And again, if you could just highlight
what the next step, so people listening
or who are in attendance today want to come to future meetings on our budget, when could
they do so?
Sure.
So there's no action that technically gets taken today, but at the 10 a.m. meeting we
will set another public hearing where we actually would discuss the approval and certification
of the final budget and I would request at the 10 a.m. meeting that that be set
for April 17th at 10 a.m.
So that would be the next and last budget meeting.
So we would vote up or down. The entire budget. Yeah, you're not able to increase. No, I mean, I'm sorry. We either approve. Oh, yes. Okay. We're not at April 17th meeting. And that's this board's decision. Okay. Thank you.
Just again a little bit.
It's worth repeating that the amount of work that you and Don have put in for all of these
months, it's not just today or this week, of listening to us.
We worked with different department heads, electeds, for since last November on identifying
ways that we could save money.
We ended up having to make a cut to our budget of, I think it was $1.1 million, $2 million
this year, at the same time trying to find efficiencies to make it work.
When earlier you talked about no offers were taken, there are many departments and many
electeds that had, they identified that these are either staff positions or things
that they need in their office or their departments to move forward.
and we were unable to fund any of those so no offers were accepted and just to you
know it when
we move to raise the the levy rate from to six dollars and seven
cents from five dollars and ninety six cents I know we're talking about 11
cents there but every single penny I think we worked hard to you know take
in consideration. These are people's hard earned dollars and we want to be good stewards
of that as well. And I think that the budget we put forward was fair and reasonable. We
made our fair share of cuts and, you know, kept in mind the balance that we need to
strike with providing a level of excellence of service for people here in Lynn County
and also understanding that, you know, every penny that people are paying and it's not an
excuse or it's not, you know, whatever. Lynn County is 15% of the property, about 15%
or average is 14 to 16 throughout the county of your property tax bill and, you know, I
was trying to see the silver lining of that letter. It ended up causing a lot of confusion
to folks but at least I think some people were able to see from that the
breakdown of where your property taxes are going and how we're using that and
just wanted to say thank you all for your work and thank the whole county all
the department heads everyone around the county was looking for ways where we
could find budget efficiencies and looking for ways that they could be
good stewards of tax dollars as well moving forward and still provide the
level of excellence that people have come to know and expect here in
Inland County and also many things that were statutorily obligated to provide either you can call those unfunded mandates or not
but you know, we really have to find that balance of
Providing those services. So thank you. I look forward today to hearing people's public comment on
on this budget and
You can't be thanked enough for all of the work and you know from us having to deal with us sometimes
elected department heads but then also wielding conversations and questions
from the public too so thank you very much. Yeah I want to first of all clarify
that none of my comments have anything to do with the lack of work or time that
you too and your colleagues upstairs put into the budget.
I believe one thing that was good that happened out of the mailing, we actually have people
at a budget meeting. So welcome. It's really, maybe next year, this process starts in November,
but it really starts for the public piloter than that, I would say, when we really start
having public come to the meetings, and we really start putting the budget together.
When does that start?
We usually, our public forum is usually like the Monday before Thanksgiving is the first
public meeting and then obviously the board discusses initiatives at the 10 a.m.
meeting that week as well right so that's really the meeting that the public
needs to get energized about and start coming to you because then then your
input is taken into consideration from the beginning I understand what
legislature did what they did they were overwhelmed with people's phone calls
and messages to do something about property taxes because in many
situations counties weren't willing to do it so I'm not saying that that would be
how I fixed it how they fixed it but that was what they did and we have to
live with it I believe we only actually we did not take two million from our
budget it was somewhere between 1.1 and 800,000 and I personally believe that
that we could have probably done done better but many of the things are the
way they are it's a it's not a three-legged stool like the
legislature where you have two branches in the governor, but we do have three supervisors
and so at the end, it's a compromised budget that probably none of us are happy with.
Or maybe some of you are happy with it, but I think we are all three frustrated about
where it ended up.
Like I said, nothing bearing on you guys, and we are frustrated for different reasons.
meetings, but we did spend a lot of time with it. And I hope that in future meetings early
on that the public does start coming to meetings and voice in their opinions. I know I got
several phone calls about today's meeting. And I'm grateful for them. In fact, I stopped
and talked to a group of people this morning. I encourage them to come. Unfortunately, they
felt talking to me there was all they really needed. But that's just the way it goes.
But but we didn't we do spend a lot of time with it
Our staff spends a whole lot of time with it and we do try to do the best that we can do in a combined effort
And just if I may from a historical perspective having some tenure on this board
We do budget zero percent growth and operations. We don't do an automatic everyone gets one percent three percent
And it's been that way for well over a decade zero percent in operational growth
The levy rate today is lower than when this was a five-member board back in 2009, even
though we've seen a flood, we've seen a recession, economic recovery, a derecho.
This board, previous boards and with our staff here have really looked at how to be one
of the most efficient and effective forms of local government and the fact that I
I think you can compare us to almost any other municipality
and you would be hard pressed to find people
who have reduced the levy rates.
Some of it due to the state buying out
the mental health system, but before that we were reducing
our levy rates, finding efficiencies not growing
as much as we could or should as a growing community.
So that's something throughout time I have been proud of
that individuals' county tax rates are still lower
today than they were 15 years ago.
So that may be efficiency, that may be effectiveness but it is where we are today and I agree with
Supervisor Zumba that this was a compromised budget.
He didn't get everything he wanted.
I didn't get everything I wanted.
Kirsten didn't get everything she wanted in terms of growth or cuts or vice versa.
We had to make some really difficult decisions that meant telling, again, certain electeds
or department heads who were telling us that they have key positions that need to be filled
or, you know, the county attorney saying they need felony prosecutors too because they
are just overwhelmed or sheriff's deputies that were just unable to hire based on
this next year will be a much different year, substantially different year.
And so we really do while we're looking at this year's budget now our eyes are already on the horizon for next year
And I think some very difficult very difficult budget decisions are going to have to be made. So obviously my comments there. I
Have one more request. I guess of my colleagues
Up to you guys, but if we have anybody from the public that comments that
warrants some discussion or
The clarification would that be all right with you guys if we did that?
I mean, normally the public speaks, but there's no interaction, so I'm just asking if that's
okay with my colleagues.
I think you're holding a public hearing, so there can be back and forth.
Great.
Thank you, Becky.
As long as it's on this issue.
Yes.
Okay.
Great.
Thank you.
And Sarah and Dawn, you're both willing to answer any clarifying questions as well.
Yes.
Thank you.
Okay.
We're going to begin our public comment period.
This is a five-minute limit per speaker
It's an opportunity for the public to address the board on any subject pertaining to board business
Do we need to close the public hearing then?
Is there any please welcome
Are you going to time?
I can do it.
You got it, Ben?
I got it.
Great.
Thank you.
Could you state your name and address, please?
Or location?
Nelson Bethke, 1276 Ivanhoe Road, Mount Vernon.
I appreciate the effort everybody's put into this budget.
And I understand that it's a difficult thing.
Nobody likes taxes.
But I think most people understand that they are a necessary evil in our society.
A couple things that I wanted to mention, I think it would help a lot if there was some
written communication about the choices that are being made by both the budget, the people
put together the budget and the members of the county.
If that was disseminated, maybe along with that statement that's mandated by the state,
unless they're prohibiting that, I think it would be helpful.
I think people would be much more accepting of it.
The other thing is I was curious if we could also have some information
and perhaps it's been just discussed during the public meetings,
but if there was some way that we could put together some kind of a written document
about the cost savings that have been implemented I'm sure there have been
cost savings implemented I can't believe there haven't been but to the general
public for the most of us we don't see that all we see is we want more money we
want more money we want more money from your point of view you may say well we've
already cut we've cut we've cut we've cut we don't see that we don't
know that you know that but if we don't know that that creates some
angst on our part thinking that there's just a constant demand for additional money and
No effort made for efficiencies consolidations
Cuts in areas where there's redundancy that type of thing
I think it would help a lot if you put something together that was able to be published in
writing
Just a suggestion
Extra work. Yeah, but I think it would help
Reduce the amount of pushback you got when taxes go up
The other thing I had to notice that 11% increase in electric utility
What happened all the savings from renewable energy that we were supposed to get I was supposed to reduce our
Electrical charges not increase them by 11% and just seems odd to me
So that's just about all I had to say. Thank you.
Is there anyone else who would like to make a public comment?
Thank you for being here today if you could state your name and
My name is Kelly Murda and I live at 4194 Quail Ridge Road in Center Point and to
kind of echo what the gentleman said about the electric rates that's the one
that draws my most attention. I actually requested budget information from the
county to look at what's been paid previously what's being budgeted. I have
concerns about the homeless overflow shelter. I have concerns about general
assistance I have concerns about all of those areas of the budgets that are impacted significantly.
Let me look at what it was and what it is and now we're looking at the budget.
There are actions being taken by this board to approve projects that are driving those
increases of rates.
And I would urge that you take action to file with the utility board your concerns
about the impact that the rate increases are having on our budget this year and
budget next year. The 11% I think is anticipated but that's not a guaranteed. We don't know what's
going to happen at this date with those budgets impacts from utilities. So thank you for your time.
Thank you.
Did you want to, I'm sorry, this is maybe now the time if you felt that we gave
an incorrect date. Yes, absolutely. Thank you.
Just want to state your name please. Morning.
Jane Russell. Good morning. 5265 Frozen Hill Road, Monticello. So the date on the
board a review at the April 30th. I just wanted to make sure that you did. It
concludes April 30th as far as the petitions being able to be filed. They
are considered untitlingly and then typically denied. So that causes some
anguish. So if it's postmarked after April 30th. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So I
just have a perspective to offer on the increase in budget. I just you
and we paid our final payment for the current taxes due
and when I look at what my tax bill will be coming up,
I will be giving 26% of the very generous raise
I just received, starting July 1st.
I work for another county municipality,
so my raise will start July 1st.
26% of that raise, not take home pay, my total raise,
will be going to the increased in tax bill that I will receive for this budget. When I
compared to what I just paid. I live in a very modest house. I just received a generous
raise. So I'm okay. I'm okay. But there are people who are not. So if you're looking at
that across the entire county, that's a problem. That's a problem for young families
who are trying to pencil out their budgets themselves. I would like to address your statement
on the levy rate not increasing since 2009 or decreasing. I'm sorry you said it decreased
since 2009. What was the change in taxable value for the county since 2009?
What was
the I mean what was your taxable value for the county in 2009 versus your taxable value
now. That's why the levy rate went down. It is. It's not because the budgets have stayed the same.
I just wanted to point that out. Thank you.
Thank you. Is there anyone else who would like to
come to the mic and add
their public comment?
Okay, I'll do one more call. Anyone else would
like to come to the microphone to make a comment we will go ahead and I'll second
it any further discussion on favor say aye aye and we will move to adjournment
thank you all for being here today and your participation