The Greene County board of supervisors will hold a public hearing next Monday morning on a proposed budget for fiscal year 2015-16 that decreases the levy rate for another year, but board chair John Muir has a warning. “We’re happy with the budget, but there will be a time we can’t continue to decrease the levy. Land values have helped in lowering levy rates, but when land values decline, we’ll have to raise the levy,” Muir said.
The total property valuation used for computing property tax dollars for the county is $617,189,200, an increase of 2.87 percent from the current year. The taxable valuation is based on property values as of Jan. 1, 2014.
The proposed budget sets the countywide levy rate at 5.68 (dollars per thousand dollars of taxable valuation), 37 cents lower than the current rate. That will generate $3,505,635 in property tax revenue, compared to $3,629,882 in the current year. The lower levy rate includes a 40 cent reduction in the levy for mental health and disability services. Greene, Guthrie, Audubon and Dallas counties are in the same region for state funding for those services; the decreased levy is to equalize funding across the four-county region.
The rural levy, an additional levy paid by rural property owners, is decreased three cents to a rate of $3.12 for the new fiscal year. Rural taxpayers will pay a total levy rate of 8.80. The rural levy will generate $1,417,663, compared to $1,375,936.
An increase of 4.02 percent in the total valuation of Greene County farmland allowed the supervisors to decrease the levy rates. That increase was partially set off by a 0.22 percent decrease in the taxable valuation of urban properties, caused in part by a state-mandated 10 percent rollback of taxable valuation for commercial and industrial property. Valuation of ag land for property taxes is now at $454,379,321; total valuation for property taxes on urban properties is now $162,809,879.
All revenue from property taxes is estimated at $4,923,298 for FY ’16, compared to $5,005,818 for the current year.
Total revenue is pegged at $11,989,203, an increase of just more than $1 million over the current year. That includes an anticipated $125,000 in gambling tax revenue with the opening of Wild Rose Jefferson, and all funds transferred in, even those earmarked for specific projects. A $358,000 increase in state funds includes a recently announced Department of Natural Resources habitat stamp grant for the purchase of timber ground southwest of Rippey.
Total expenditures and transfers out for FY ’16 are estimated at $12,424,692, compared to the re-estimated $10,958,044 for the current year.
Expenditures in the various service areas total $11,169,692 and are as follows (rounded to the nearest thousand):
Public safety and legal services – Sheriff’s office and Law Enforcement Center, $1,265,000; total of $1,625,000 also includes county attorney, juvenile court services and emergency services. This amount is an increase of $130,000, with half the cost of a new ambulance ($60,000) and increased jail expenses taking the large portion of the increase.
Physical health and social services – Public health, veterans services, children and family services, etc., $460,000.
Mental health, intellectual disability and developmental disability – $465,000.
County environment and education – Conservation, economic development, libraries, county fair, housing programs, etc., $1,064,000. (This budget line includes a $250,000 grant from the Iowa Economic Development Agency to Scranton Manufacturing for which the county is the fiscal agent.)
Roads and transportation – $4,882,000 (Note: of the total expense, $1,185,000 is funded by county transfers of rural, general and LOSST funds, with the remainder coming from road use taxes and other revenue sources). The total is an increase of $483,000, which is matched in the revenue portion of the budget.
Government services to residents – Motor vehicle services at the treasurer’s office, recorder’s office, elections administration, $375,000.
Administration – Auditor and treasurer office except as noted above, board of supervisors, data processing and county liability/unemployment insurance, $1,630,000.
Nonprogram current – discretionary funding for organizations and grants for “brick and mortar” projects, $60,000 (paid for by an annual payment of $50,000 in lieu of property tax by Louis Dreyfus LDC), and a pass through of $175,000 for the Greene County Fair Association for its capital project.
The estimated total fund balance at the end of the new fiscal year, June 30, 2016, is estimated at $3,544,377, a decrease of $435,489 from the estimated fund balance for June 30, 2015. The total fund balance is 28.6 percent of all expenditures.
To see the public notice of the public hearing on the budget, click here: County budget FY 16. A public hearing on the proposed FY 2015-16 budget is scheduled for Monday, March 2, at 9 am in the board room at the courthouse.
The county levies are only a portion of the total property tax bill. Typically, the county tax is less than 30 percent of the total tax bill for rural property owners and less than 20 percent for non-rural property owners.
