The Koochiching County Board Tuesday is expected to adopt the 2013 levy and budget following a public hearing this week.
The county board has proposed a 1.5 percent increase in the tax levy over what was collected from property owners this year. The increase, which would collect $72,283 more from property owners, would support a $3.95 million tax levy for 2013, and a $25.9 million budget.
Teresa Jaksa, county administration director, reviewed the budget plan with commissioners during the public hearing, which drew just two members of the public who regularly attend most county board meetings.
The county’s levy history shows a $3.5 million levy in 2008, a 3-percent increase over 2007; and 3-percent increases in each of 2009, 2010, and 2011. In 2012, no increase occurred in the $3.9 million levy over 2011.
Jaksa told the board that as a result of the increase in the county’s tax base, the proposed 1.5 percent levy increase in 2013 will not increase the amount of tax county property owners above what they paid in 2012, unless there was a change in value or classification of property.
Meanwhile, Jaksa said the county’s 2013 budget is broken into the following categories: mandated/essential services, support services, community development services, debt service and other.
Mandated and essential government services is the largest part of the 2013 budget at $23.5 million, Jaksa showed in spreadsheets. County support services account for 1.2 million; community development services are set at $649,000 and debt service for the Jackfish Bay sewer project is set at $251,550.
The Highway Department budget is set at $11.7 million which results from a two-year road project work plan in 2013 and 2014. The plan borrows from future county state aid highway allocations as well as from county funds, which will be repaid in 2015.
Jaksa told the board that the state budget forecast of a $1.1 billion deficit for 2014 and 2015 should prompt a board directive to curtail expenditures “so there is room to make adjustments if the plan to resolve the state budget deficit results in funding cuts for cost shifts to the county.
Among those directives will be a hiring freeze, she added.
“We have to be ready at our end to make adjustments,” she said. “We are always in flux and the plan is always prepared to make changes because the state and federal fiscal years are on a different schedule.”
Jaska said the budget shows revenues considered “county dollars” at $7.68 million. That money is derived from the levy, other tax revenue interest revenue, fees, rents and charges for service, along with general state aid and government payment in lieu of taxes.
The county dollar base is the gap funding for the county budget, she said. The gap funding is used for programs and services mandated by state and federal requirements, as well as funding for programs and services desired, that do not come with a funding source of its own.
“When this funding is exhausted,” she wrote in a review for the board and public hearing, “county fund reserves provide the funding.”
Dedicated revenues – specific fees, charges for services, and incomes for specified services – total $3.4 million. Dedicated aid revenue of $12.3 million is expected in 2013.
