The Government's new fiscal year begins next week. Yuma County's budget for the new year is up from this fiscal year. But it holds the line on property taxes. KAWC's Kim Johnson reports.....
The new fiscal year begins July 1st. The new general fund budget totals 83.7 million dollars, an increase of three and a half percent from this fiscal year. But County Supervisor Board Chairman Tony Reyes says the budget's total property tax rate was held at this year's three dollars sixty eight cents per $100 of assessed valuation, although higher property valuations could increase individual property tax totals. Reyes says holding the line on the total property tax rate was a priority of the budget process....
TONY REYES...To me and to a lot of the supervisors who've been around for a while, the idea of not increasing the tax rate was one of the driving forces in keeping the budget to a certain level...:10
Reyes says even though the tax rate remains the same, County officials put together a budget that does more than this year's....
TONY REYES...We're increasing the amounts of money that we're gonna put out on road upgrades, and we're buying some more vehicles that needed to be replaced. There's a two percent increase in salary for all employees of Yuma County...:13
Reyes says some County employees may also get an additional adjustment to get their salary to market rate, or to accommodate a revamped "step" pay plan. I'm Kim Johnson KAWC News.