The fiscal year 2019-2020 tax levy and budget were approved for display by the Knox County Board at their meeting Monday night.
With the approval, the county will display both for the next month and vote to approve them at their November 27 meeting.
Finance Committee chair David Amor said that the budget was balanced.
“Not only is a balanced budget it even is a surplus of $63,” Amor said at the board meeting Monday, getting a few chuckles. “The total budget for the county is, I believe, $62,319,862. Of which, $11,147,748 will be your tax dollars. The rest is coming from other sources.”
Amor encouraged the public to view the budget, saying that “until we vote on it at the next meeting, the budget is not set.” He said that if people wish to make a case to change aspects of the budget, it can be done.
Finance Committee member Jared Hawkinson, said that the budget had a large deficit that they were able to erase without cutting jobs.
“We started out with a deficit of $1.6 million that we had to come up with and we did not cut any active jobs. Everybody made sacrifices in every department. So if there are any complaints that departments aren’t getting what they want… people still have jobs.”
In general, Amor said that the tax levy has gone down. Last year the tax levy was 1.32242 percent. This year it is 1.32082 percent this year. This was attributed to the increase in the equalized assessed value of the county. In dollars, Amor said it was about a $747,000 decrease.
Both the budget and the levy will be on display at the County Clerk’s office in the Knox County Courthouse and online.
