Council Gives Preliminary Nod To Budget With 0.4% Increase
Posted
Tim Robertson-trobertson@timesuniononline.com
Kosciusko County Council finished working on the county's 2009 budget Thursday.
The county's plan for its general fund shows only a 0.42 percent increase from the 2008 budget. The increase totals about $75,500, compared to about a $2 million increase in 2008 from 2007.The $18,086,945 fund, along with several separate department funds, includes a 3-percent raise for all full-time county employees, compared to a 2.5 percent raise in 2008. Two major factors helped keep the budget increase relatively low this year - the state-mandated elimination of township trustees' duties and the fact that there will be no elections in 2009.
The highway department's Major Moves fund increased to $5,846,603, a 27.7 percent increase from 2008. The local road and street fund stayed flat at $1.1 million, and the cumulative bridge fund decreased to $740,000, a 25.63 percent decrease from last year.
The health department budget shows a 5.23 percent increase to $693,998.
The official public hearing for the 2009 budget is scheduled for 7 p.m. Sept. 11 in the Old Courtroom.
After adoption, the county will send the budget to the Indiana Department of Local Government Finance for review. The DLGF will hold the budget until Kosciusko County submits assessed property values for 2009. When the DLGF receives the assessed values, they will release the budget numbers from which the county's tax rates will be figured.
