The county supervisors will hold the first Thursday meeting of the year tomorrow. The board generally meets Thursday mornings during January and February, in addition to the regular Monday meetings, to keep the budget process moving.
The agenda includes consideration of the compensation board’s recommendation of a 2.5 percent salary increase for all elected officials. The supervisors can accept the recommendation or decrease the amount, as long as they decrease it the same percentage for every elected official. They can also separate their own salaries from the recommendation.
The board has not discussed the recommendation in a public meeting, but board chair John Muir verified last week that there is no interest in separating the supervisors’ salaries from the other officials’.
The supervisors will also hear information from two firms as they continue gathering information about tax increment financing (TIF).
Nathan Overberg of Ahlers & Cooney PC and Jeff Heil of Northern Securities are both on the agenda.
The supervisors have already heard from Ahlers & Cooney. They also heard from Bob Josten of Dorsey & Whitney in December. Josten has worked with the city of Jefferson on TIF projects, and his presentation was attended by several Greene County Development Corporation members.
However, the information the supervisors heard in the two presentations didn’t match. Josten suggested the possible uses of TIF are much broader than what Overberg had told them. They’ve asked Overberg to return so they can ask more questions.
Heil is coming because he has talked with auditor Jane Heun about meeting with the supervisors to offer his services in setting up and facilitating TIF for the county.
The supervisors have not previously considered tax increment financing. The MidAmerican wind turbines prompted the recent discussions.
Supervisors Tom Contner and Mick Burkett have expressed reluctance to use TIF, while Muir and supervisors Dawn Rudolph and Peter Bardole are more willing to move in that direction, as long as the required urban renewal areas can be set up to allow use of TIF throughout the county, including the smaller towns.
