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The Sarpy County Board voted unanimously Tuesday to adopt the county’s 2010 budget, and landowners who did not see a change in their property values stand to pay about the same in county property taxes.
Sarpy County agreed to keep the property tax rate at 30 cents per $100 valuation. Under the adopted budget, the owner of a $100,000 property would pay $300 to the county.
The county’s general fund, which covers most day-to-day operations, would increase by about $390,830, or 0.7 percent, under the new budget, to about $54.2 million.
The valuation of property within the county rose 2.4 percent during the past year, to $10.9 billion. Of that total, the county saw a 3 percent increase in new growth, but a 0.7 percent decrease in existing properties as a result of revaluation.
County Board member Rich Jansen of rural Gretna said county officials slashed the proposed budget by roughly $7 million during recent weeks to ensure that the county did not increase its property tax rate.
“I know that quite a few departments took some cuts,” Jansen said, “but the elected officials who ran these departments were very cooperative. Everybody across the board took a cut. Certain departments had a hope chest, but (board chairwoman) Joni Jones and the rest of the staff did the fine-tuning.”
The county’s road budget is scheduled to drop to $3.3 million from $5.6 million. Total funds budgeted for road projects were reduced by at least $1 million because of the slowdown in the economy.
In the law enforcement budget, money set aside for prisoner room and board was decreased by $118,000. A federal grant for two sheriff’s deputies and two cruisers for traffic enforcement was approved, but another grant application to fund six sheriff’s deputies from federal economic stimulus money was not.
Construction of a new sheriff’s administration building near 84th Street and Platteview Road will begin this year.
The county also faces roughly a 20 percent health insurance rate increase and ongoing remodeling projects at the new courthouse administrative annex.
Contact the writer:
444-1056, john.ferak@owh.com
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