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HARTINGTON — Cedar County Commissioners approved Tuesday a $29.57 million operating budget for the new fiscal year, up 3.4% from last year.
The county’s total property valuation climbed 23.2% to about $3.90 billion. With that larger base, the county can raise its overall property-tax request by 9.9% — to $8.46 million — while cutting the levy about 10.8%, to roughly 21.7 cents per $100 of valuation.
What any individual taxpayer owes will still depend on how that specific property’s value changed.
Commission Chairman Dave McGregor said the county works hard to stay fiscally responsible.
“I think we’ve looked this over enough times, that we’ve cut it down about as far as we can,” he said. “But everything costs more. We’ve had to pay more for equipment, supplies and wages.”
McGregor added that putting together a budget involves a lot of guess work.
“You just never know what you’re going to get,” he said. “Last winter was amazing. Overtime, fuel, wear and tear on vehicles. We have a lot of variables every year. This winter could be totally different, so you never really know.”
