Proposed levy increase raises concerns, questions from public

A normally quiet Board of Supervisors meeting drew several people in with questions about the proposed property tax levy for Fiscal Year 2025-26 at Monday’s meeting.

The current tax year county wide tax rate is set at 7.77886, with a proposed increase to 8.28624 in FY25-26. Taxable valuations on rural services have a proposed increase to $280,897,826 in FY25-26, up from $271,322,634 in FY24-25. The proposed rural additional tax rate has a small proposed increase from 5.28318 in FY24-25 to 5.34971 in FY25-26, for a total proposed rural rate of 13.63595 in FY25-26 from 13.06204 in FY24-25.

Public comment

The first constituent to speak during the public hearing touched on the amount of taxes in the county.

“They’re too high already - frankly, it’s getting to the point I can’t live in the county anymore,” he said.

Nathan Gibson, Clarke County resident and president of the Interstate 35 school board, spoke of work he and his fellow board members had done to help alleviate the tax burden for those in the Interstate 35 school district; the school district includes small portions of northern Clarke County next to the Madison and Warren County lines. Gibson said that they were able to lower the tax burden by 1.5 percentage points, saving residents in the school district about $200,000 a year with plans to continue lowering or keeping the taxes low.

“My challenge is when I got my tax bill, all that work that the I-35 School District Board of Directors did to lower taxes kinda got wiped out by the county, for at least Clarke County,” Gibson said.

He noted that some areas the school board looked at was optimizing resources by pushing the administration to look at where tax dollars were being wasted, where money could be saved and by combining roles. He encouraged the supervisors to look at such tactics, hoping that they could see the savings at Interstate 35 and work to bring similar savings to citizens here.

Another constituent spoke about the supervisors needing to cut departmental budgets and making the departments stick to those budgets, not giving out money when asked for.

“You guys are not trying to save the county anything - it’s spend, it’s spend, it’s spend, it’s spend - and everybody’s tired of it,” he said.

Former county supervisor Larry Keller spoke of two county boards that he sits on and how he’d seen that the supervisors had cut budgets this year.

“We’re down to where we can only cut so much…we tried to do everything we could to toe the line this year,” supervisor Dean Robins said. “The only thing I can say…which services do you want to start cutting? Because that’s where we’re at.”

The constituent countered that the supervisors should cut employees in the courthouse, as in his opinion there are too many.

“We’re down to the point now where it’s hard to cut a lot out of the budget…we’ve tried to keep it absolutely as low as we can. Inflation absolutely killed us. …eventually if everything stays the way it is, we’re going to have to cut more,” supervisor Randy Dunbar said.

In answer to a question about how the assessor determines property values, Robins explained that they have to stay within 95% of what local property sales have been. As properties sell for more, the valuation goes up. Another citizen said that by increasing the value of properties, it should offset inflation increases as more tax is being received from the valuation going up. Another said it was akin to being taxed twice - once on the increase of property value and again by increasing the levy rate.

Clarke County Auditor Jessica Graves explained the main reason for the levy increase.

“The tax levy increase this year was mainly due to our debt service levy and the need for a tower. That is a majority of where our increase came from,” Graves said. Without the need for the tower, she said the tax levy would have stayed very close to what it was, with just a small increase due to a rise in insurance costs.

Gibson again voiced his opinion for the supervisors to look at optimizing services before cutting or eliminating them. Keller pointed out that Clarke County only has 12 townships while many neighboring counties have 16 which adds up to a smaller taxable base, and the amount of acres in Clarke County that are in forest reserve area a hindrance.

Acres in the forest reserve program are not taxed; in 2020, the number of acres in Clarke County not taxed was just shy of 11,000 acres. State legislators have been working on a bill that would move the forest reserve program back to the county supervisor, who would then be able to vote on participation or not.

Robins pointed out that the use of ARPA funds over the past several years for major expenses had helped to keep costs to the county down, and Dunbar referenced House File 718 that will require the county to cut out $500,000 starting in 2029 if the state makes no changes to taxes.

“The advantage we have here today, guys, we get to come in and sound ourselves to this board. Out in everyday living you’ve got nobody to talk to about inflation…appreciate the fact that you’ve got an ability to come in here and talk,” said Dennis Chaney, former county supervisor.

A public hearing for the county’s budget is set for 9 a.m. on Monday, April 21.

Other supervisor news

Following the levy hearing, the supervisors held their regular meeting.

The supervisors approved an increase in pay incentive of $3,000 for head dispatch and head jailer positions. The new incentive will start July 1 as requested by the Clarke County Sheriff’s Office; the current incentive is $1,000.

The supervisors also approved a 28E agreement with the City of Murray in the amount of $36,000 for law enforcement services.