Commissioners OK preliminary levy and budget for next year

Jake Keohen

Montgomery Messenger

The Le Sueur County Commissioners were presented with proposed tax levy and budget numbers for 2007 at their regular meeting held Tuesday, Sept. 12 at the courthouse in Le Center.

In order to meet the increasing demands of the county budget ($26.4 million in 2007, $24 million in 2006) the commissioners approved a proposed net property tax levy of $11.5 million for next year, which reflects an 8.23 percent increase over the $10.6 million net levy in 2006.

The proposed preliminary levy and budget were presented by Chief Deputy County Auditor Carol Blaschko. The final documents will be adopted in December following the Truth-In-Taxation Hearing. The board is not allowed to increase the levy once preliminary approval is given, but can lower the final numbers before final adoption.

A preliminary levy survey of other counties was distributed, indicating a proposed increase of 9.5 percent for Blue Earth County, 7.6 in Rice, 7.5 in Nicollet and 7.0 percent for Sibley County.

Also at Tuesday's meeting:

• The board approved an application to cut and remove damaged trees from a river access as presented by Don Reak of the parks department. Approval was also given for additional playground equipment at Richter's Woods County Park west of Montgomery.

• The Le Center Recycling Contract, with recycling services available to all county residents, was approved at $1,500 per month.

• A donation of $5,000 was accepted from the UNIMIN Corporation to help fund the cleanup project following the August 24 tornado.

• Karen Gerhardson, financial worker in the human services department, was granted permanent status effective September 7.

• Management Information Systems (MIS) Director Scott Gerr requested approval for additional computer system security training, implementation and software to better protect county files and records. He had only one cost proposal and was asked to obtain additional quotes and come back at a future meeting.

• Next meeting of the county board is scheduled for Tuesday, Sept. 19 at 9:30 a.m. in the commissioners' chambers at the courthouse in Le Center.