No tax increase in Washington County’s proposed budget for 2023
Washington County officials released next year’s proposed budget, which does not include a tax increase.
The estimated $163.32 million budget published Monday afternoon would represent a 10% increase over last year’s spending plan, although that is mainly due to the continued influx of federal stimulus money following the COVID-19 pandemic.
Finance Director Joshua Hatfield said they increased the line item of American Rescue Plan Act money from $40 million in the 2022 budget to $50 million next year with the expectation of more projects being funded though that revenue stream.
Rising personnel costs, increased retirement contributions and higher fuel costs accounted for the rest of the increase in the budget compared to last year’s $148.23 million spending plan.
While much of the county’s nearly $100 million in ARPA money had been earmarked for various projects this year – such as broadband expansion, radio upgrades and the courthouse’s courtroom expansion – that money won’t actually be spent until 2023 or 2024. Hatfield said the money must be “encumbered” for projects by 2024, but the county has until 2026 to spend the funds.
While this advertised draft budget is a roadmap for next year’s spending plan, it is still not final and has room for changes to be made, Hatfield said.
“Normally, each department isn’t spending its entire budget,” Hatfield said. “It’s just an estimate of what we think could happen next year, but typically we never expend our full budget. It’s just a guess.”
More adjustments likely will be made to the budget until the county commissioners are expected to vote on the spending plan at their Dec. 15 meeting. Over the next four weeks, the draft budget will be on display for public review at the chief clerk’s office on the sixth floor of the county government’s Crossroads Center building at 95 W. Beau St. in Washington.
“There might be some areas that we might make adjustments to,” he said. “There will probably be some minor decreases, adjustments.”
Most importantly for property owners is that the county’s tax rate will remain at 2.43 mills. Taxes have not been raised in 13 years, although the rate had to be adjusted in 2018 following the countywide property reassessment.