CLARK COUNTY'S BUDGET UNVEILED
Friday, October 1st, 2010 -- 11:42 AM
Clark County?s budget situation is tight, but it could be a lot worse.Supervisors got their first look at the $56,929,558 spending proposal this morning. That represents a 1.4% increase from the current year?s budget.
The levy is projected to be $12,633,000?an increase of 3.4%. The mil rate is expected to jump of 6.5% from the current year to $7.21 per thousand dollars of property. One of the reasons the mil rate will go up more than the levy, relatively speaking, is a projected $51-million decrease in the county?s equalized value.
Under the proposal, a couple of individual departments will see substantial jumps in their levy expenses in 2011.
The Clark County Health Care Center is slated to rely on $2.1-million in local property tax dollars in 2010; that?s an increase of 32%. The Health Care Center is not a money-maker, and has recently relied on fund balances to reduce their draw on the levy. Those fund balances are drying up.
The Clark County Sheriff?s Department?s levy will grow 14% to $5,222,308 in 2011. The Department is expected to lose thousands of dollars in revenue as Portage County pulls their inmates from the Clark County Jail.
And it appears a number of supervisors plan to amend the budget by adding more money to the Economic Development Corporation. The CCEDC requested $150,000, but was only budgeted to receive $105,000 from the county.
The budget hearing will be on November 9th.
Feel free to contact us with questions and/or comments.