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Government

New Budget Approved for Scott County

the Scott County budget for FY2023
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Scott County

Thanks to federal pandemic relief money, next year's budget for Scott County will reach the highest level ever. Thursday night, the county board voted to approve the budget for the fiscal year beginning in July.

Budget Director David Farmer says the new budget totals 119 million dollars, including 16.5 million from Washington. And that will help Scott County lower its urban and rural property tax rates by 5.5 per cent each.

"A combination of the rising values, the impacts from the state rollbacks for the amount that's taxable value each year, as well as looking at all revenue sources that are available to the county including the local option sales tax."

Revenue from the local option tax is expected to increase 11 per cent, to 5.8 million dollars.

"This will be the first year that the mental health and disability services will no longer be funded with local property tax dollars - it'll all be funded with state dollars. So that was about a 3.2 million dollar change coming off the tax rolls and being paid by state services from here on out."

The new Scott County budget also includes salary increases for top officials - 4 per cent for the auditor, county attorney, recorder, treasurer, and supervisors, and an 8 per cent hike for the sheriff.

Government
A native of Detroit, Herb Trix began his radio career as a country-western disc jockey in Roswell, New Mexico (“KRSY, your superkicker in the Pecos Valley”), in 1978. After a stint at an oldies station in Topeka, Kansas (imagine getting paid to play “Louie Louie” and “Great Balls of Fire”), he wormed his way into news, first in Topeka, and then in Freeport Illinois. While a graduate student in the Public Affairs Reporting Program at the University of Illinois at Springfield (then known as Sangamon State University), he got his first taste of public radio, covering Illinois state government for WUIS. Here in the Quad Cities, Herb worked for WHBF Radio before coming to WVIK in 1987. Herb also produces the weekly public affairs feature Midwest Week – covering the news behind the news by interviewing reporters about the stories they cover.