Potter County tax increase unlikely

Potter County officials are working on the county's 2008 operating budget, which at this early stage does not appear to require an increase in real estate taxes.

In response to questions from Endeavor News at Thursday's business meeting, Ken Wingo, chairman of the Board of Commissioners, said Chief Clerk Cora Thompson has been conferring with department heads to pencil-in preliminary numbers on the budget.

While the commissioners have not yet reviewed details, there appears to be "no general reason that we would be looking at a tax increase at this time," Wingo said.

Commissioner Cathy Bowers concurred.

Taxes went from 10.8 mills to 12.3 mills this year to finance the county's $6.2 million budget. The commissioners attributed the tax hike to more expensive employees' health insurance premiums, rising utility costs and, especially, higher expenses for the criminal justice system.

The budget included approximately $940,000 for operation of the county jail, where the inmate population more than doubled to an average of 40.

Additionally, the state only covers 65 percent of District Attorney Dawn Fink's $148,000 annual salary. The county must also pay for an assistant district attorney and expanded hours for the public defender, Wingo pointed out.

Since that budget was adopted and the tax rate increased, the county has benefited from a tripling of the

in lieu of taxes" payments for state-owned land. Under a new state law, the county gets $360,000 per year, up from the previous allotment of approximately $120,000.

Because state-owned land is tax-exempt, each local taxing body gets a per-acre payment every year. That figure was 40 cents for several years, but it was boosted to $1.20 each for the county, township and school district earlier this year.

(Reporter Midge Ingalls contributed to this story. Additional details from the commissioners' meeting will appear next week.)