The Marion County Board of Supervisors is considering whether or not there will be an increase in taxes for the upcoming fiscal year that begins Oct. 1.
The board met Thursday with Charlie Prince, its certified public accountant, to discuss finances for July and also the upcoming year.
One issue of concern is the property valuation, which fell by about $294,000.
“What we are seeing is everything has gone up except for revenue,” Prince said.
“If you leave the levies just as they are and not have a tax increase, that is about $50,000 less going to be received in the general fund,” Prince said.
Prince said it would take about a 0.58-mill increase in the tax levy to fund the county schools based on the district’s request. The district is asking for the same amount of money from county property taxes — $4,174,948 — as last year, but the decrease in property values would require a higher property tax rate to generate that amount.
The way that process works, as set out by state law, is that the county school board requests a dollar amount, and the Board of Supervisors sets a millage rate that will generate that amount. As long as the school board’s request is not more than a 4 percent increase from the previous year, the Board of Supervisors doesn’t have authority to change the amount of funding for the schools.
Supervisors decided to schedule a work session next Thursday at 9:30 a.m. to go over revenues and expenditures more closely.
Prince, when talking about July’s spending, said the county has spent 83 percent of the budget with two more months to go.
“We are in good shape in expenditures,” Prince said regarding this year’s budget.
