Battle lines as being drawn as county commissioners begin to debate whether to use a one-time reassessment windfall to cut taxes or increase spending.
At stake appears to be what to do with a consultant’s report preliminarily concluding that county employees are underpaid an average of four percent.
Assessed value of property in the county is expected to increase by close to $8.2 million this year.
If it weren’t for a state-imposed tax lid, the same property tax rate would generate considerably more revenue.
Because of the lid, however, the county will have to cut its general fund tax rate by a little more than 3 percent to keep overall spending under the lid. Maintaining current tax rates would require voter approval — unless the county takes advantage of exceptions that tax accountant Scot Loyd seemed to take pains not to describe as loopholes when he itemized them for commissioners Friday.
One exception would be creation of a new budgetary item for storm contingency. Such a fund might be tapped not just in an emergency but also for more routine things like road repairs after the types of storms that tend to happen most years.
Although state law excludes from the tax lid money tucked away for emergencies, it does not evaluate whether what county actually uses the money to buy is an emergency expenditure, Loyd said.
“I’m just throwing that to you out front to think about if you’re forward-thinking and thinking outside the box and not so tied to what can we do to reduce the budget,” he told commissioners.
(Read more: HILLSBORO Star-Journal)