Adams County budget to increase three percent, tax rate to remain flat

QUINCY — Voters head to the polls on Nov. 8 and there will be some new faces on the Adams County Board who are sworn in on Dec. 1.

But the ones who are leaving the board, or may lose their re-election bids, will still have one job to do.

The entire board is up for re-election, as is the case every 10 years. Adams County Board Finance Chairman Bret Austin has put together the budget that will be voted on right after the election, either at the regularly scheduled board meeting on Nov. 15 or at a special meeting that has to be held before December 1.

Adams County’s proposed $56.9 million budget has been sent to all 21 current board members to look over before the vote. Austin said the three percent increase is largely due to the scheduled increase in salaries for county employees, most of which are contracted via agreements with bargaining units.

Austin said the anticipated increase in the County’s Equalized Assessed Valuation (EAV), which is going up 4.5 percent, will cover the increase as the overall tax levy will remain flat.

“I have as. finance chairman, I’ve kind of promoted the theory that the EAV is sort of like the cost of living adjustment for the county or city,” Austin said. “If you can do less and lower the levy and get by with what you need for services. That’s great.

“But I think we’ve seen what we’ve seen the city of Quincy, do it…the county has done it before. Going through austerity measures were almost it’s like, “hey, let’s cut that rate because property values went up so much”, but at the same time, that’s a little bit of cutting off your nose to spite your face in terms of government…But we are obligated to give 2 percent to 3 percent raises. That’s the biggest component of the budget is the salary through the unions.”

So with a flat levy, your property taxes stay flat if your property value stays flat. But if your property value goes up, your taxes will go up.

“It’s all just a ratio,” Austin said. “‘Why did my taxes go up?’ Gets asked a lot and it’s like, ‘Well, how was your house valued? Did you trade from one property to a higher value property?’ Those all go hand-in- hand.”