Tax rate projected to drop as county comes in under cap

Thanks to cuts and use of fund balances, Taylor County is coming in below its maximum allowable tax limit. On Tuesday, members of the county’s budget review committee met to finalize and approve the budget to be presented to the full county board on October 26. Members of the committee included Chuck Zenner (chairman), Scott Mildbrand, Lester Lewis, Ray Soper, Catherine Lemke with county finance director Larry Brandl coordinating the process.

The budget hearing will be held at 10 a.m. on Oct. 26. with action on the budget to occur that day.

The budget was presented to the committee with a projected county levy of $13,682,100 which would have a tax rate of $8.07 per $1,000 of equalized value. After going through the review process including cuts, applying additional fund balance and other changes, the committee approved sending a budget with a $12,376,998 levy with a tax rate of $7.64 per $1,000 of equalized value.

In setting the rate, the county used $1.5 million of anticipated county sales tax revenue to reduce the budget.

The tax rate for the 2022 budget was $8.11 per $1,000 of equalized value. The county’s tax rate is projected to drop by $0.47 per $1,000 of value resulting in a tax savings of approximately $700 on a home valued at $150,000.

The equalized value for all property in the county was set by the Wisconsin Department of Revenue at $1,695,402,100 an increase of $169,076,000 or 11.1% over last year.

As in the past, the county is under a county levy limit freeze imposed by the state. The allowed levy limit is the 2022 adopted county levy plus a .881% increase, plus the county special levies for ambulance, bridge aid and libraries, plus allowable debt service adjustments. Based on this formula, the total maximum levy for the county is $13,644,849. The proposed 2023 budget of $12,945,513 will be under the allowable maximum limit by $699,336.

While initially the county had looked at the option of utilizing short term borrowing to exceed the revenue cap, and that option remains on the table, based on changes in the county budget Brandl said that may not be as necessary this year. The county is planning to borrow funds for capital projects and with the total repayment built into the tax levy this year allowing the county to pay the loan back in under 90 days.