Observations all along the line - Kimball & the Southern Panhandle First
Observations all along the line - Kimball & the Southern Panhandle First
The Kimball County Board of Commissioners unanimously approved a resolution Tuesday to adopt the 2023-24 Kimball County Budget. In addition, the final 2023-24 Property Tax Request for $3,786,671 was approved and adopted.
No members of the public other than county employees were in attendance Tuesday, but a large crowd packed the KCTS meeting room for the Joint Public Hearing on Sept. 19. The Joint Public Hearing was required because the county proposed to increase its annual property tax revenue by more than 2%.
Property owners had received a pink card, one card per parcel, in the mail announcing the 2023 Notice of Proposed Tax Increase. The issuance of the pink cards results from Legislative Bill 644 as amended by LB 1250 if a subdivision within a county that seeks to increase its property tax request by more than the allowable growth percentage shall participate in a joint public hearing.
Before the public spoke, Kimball County Budget Officer Josi Morgan presented the budget. Based on the proposed property tax request and changes in other revenue, the total operating budget of Kimball County will exceed last year’s by 3.94%, excluding the Kimball Health Services/Kimball County Manor budgets.
Last year’s levy was .0459341, while this year’s is .0479372. The total assessed value of the county property increased by $65,680,827.
In August, the commissioners and other officials worked four days to cut $1.66 million. This included cuts to equipment, fuel, repairs, transfers and contingency funds. The increase in the budget was attributed to considerable increases in HR, IT, health insurance premiums, fuel and wages.
The county residents who spoke at the two-hour meeting had various concerns.
Twenty members of the public spoke to the commissioners about the budget with topics ranging from not understanding the complexity of the budget to not having easy access to the budget documents to the appearance of lack of transparency. Other speakers focused on the increase in the assessed value of their property and then the increase in the tax levy, while others suggested cuts in the budget.