Washington County issued the following announcement.
The Washington County Board of Commissioners will take comments on the county’s 2021 budget at an evening meeting Dec. 1.
The meeting will be in the County Board Room at the Government Center in Stillwater, starting at 6 p.m. Those who wish to participate remotely should call the Office of Administration at 651-430-6001 for instructions, or use this link to join via Webex.
The Washington County Board of Commissioners took the first formal steps in approving the county’s 2021 budget Sept. 15.
The board:
certified the proposed property tax levy payable 2021 for Washington County, with a net levy of $114.5 million, no change from 2020;
certified the proposed property tax levy payable 2021 for the Washington County Regional Rail Authority of $660,000, also no change from 2020;
adopted the Washington County proposed 2021 budget, with operating expenditures of $195.3 million, an increase of .24% over 2020, and capital expenditures of $48.4 million, an increase of 21.7% from 2020;
adopted the Washington County Regional Rail Authority proposed 2021 budget of $669,200; and
consented to the proposed property tax levy of $5.4 million payable 2021 for the Washington County Community Development Agency.
The proposed budget includes non-levy revenue of $115.8 million, an increase of 7.82% from 2020, and expenditures of $24.9 million for the Gold Line Transit project.
If the proposed levy is adopted, the county’s tax rate, which is also determined by growth in the county’s tax base, would decrease 5.7%, and the county’s portion of the property tax on the median-valued home in the county would decrease by 3.4%. Should the recommended levy be approved, the impact on the owner of the median valued home in the county, which is $307,500, would be a decrease of $28 a year in county taxes.
The budget’s final adoption will be Dec. 15. While the board has set the proposed property tax levy payable in 2021, it may still lower that levy before Dec. 15, but it may not raise it.
All budget workshops were webcast, and archives are on the county’s website.
Original source can be found here.
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