Washington County Commissioners Approve Reduced Budget for Fiscal 2013

Washington County Commissioners recently approved the county’s fiscal 2013 operating  and capital budgets, both of which are lower than those adopted for fiscal 2012.    The county’s operating budget is $285.2 million, 2% less than fiscal 2012; and its capital budget is funded at $45.3 million, 8% less.  As reported by the herald-mail.com:

The county’s property tax rate will remain at 94.8 cents per $100 of assessed value, where it has stood since 2001.

This year’s budget will include a one-time $1,000 stipend for all full-time county employees, after three years in which employees didn’t get any boost in their pay.

In addition, county employees will get a half-step raise starting Jan. 1.

A reduction in the county’s workforce is helping to fund the employee stipend and half-step raise. The county has reduced its workforce from 780 employees to 743.

On the capital side:

The county estimates each year how much debt it can afford as a guide to forming a capital-project budget.

For fiscal year 2013, the debt level for capital projects was set at $14 million.

However, the commissioners, at the insistence of their president, Terry Baker, have agreed to use up to $2 million in expected savings from certain projects to cut the debt level to $12 million.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.