There will be an increase in the tax levy for Greene County starting next fiscal year on July 1st.

The Board of Supervisors set the rural tax levy at $3.35 per $1,000 valuation and raised the countywide tax levy to $5.79 for the 2019 fiscal year. This fiscal year, the tax levies are $3.20 for rural and $5.65 for the tax levy countywide. The numbers are similar to the 2017 fiscal year with $3.16 for rural and $5.68 for countywide. Supervisor Chair John Muir explains why the Board decided to raise the tax levies.

“One thing that we looked at that we put it at that level was our ending balances. We decided to keep those in an area where we were more comfortable with. We bumped it that little bit to end up with those ending balances being up a little better than what they were going to end up with if we would’ve just stayed at the same rate again.”

Muir says in tight budget years, sometimes governmental entities have to raise taxes.

“There’s always that worry that things get tight. Everybody’s budgets get tight at times and our’s is fairly tight now. But I think we’re still providing services that we want to. And with the use of some of the (Louis) Dreyfus funds from some of those other things that people come to us for in our normal budget, I think we’re meeting all of the needs.”

Along with approving the county’s budget, they also set a three-percent raise in salaries for elected officials.