The Mower County Board approved the setting of the preliminary 2019 levy for 9.74 percent during Tuesday morning’s board session.

By setting the preliminary levy, the county board cannot go over the 9.742 percentage, but can decrease the levy percentage before it’s finalized sometime in December.

Previously during the Sept. 11 board meeting, the Mower County commissioners were presented a draft budget and levy for discussion and updating purposes. Back then, the needed levy increase was projected to be about 12.95 percent, according to a previous story.

However, the finance committee recommended the increase of the solid waste service charge from $5 per point to $5.50 per point, and to set the proposed property tax levy at $22,854,861, according to Craig Oscarson, county coordinator. If approved, then the proposed levy would be an increase of 9.742 percent over 2018.

Commissioner Polly Glynn expressed that she was “comfortable” with setting this amount as opposed to the previously projected 12.95 percent tax levy.

“There’s been significant changes to get this number down,” Glynn said. “I’m comfortable setting that since we can’t go over that amount.”

Affecting the budget, levy

Several things were found to affect the 2019 budget and levy, including:

•The new compensation study and normal payroll and benefit growth, adding 2.4 positions at the cost of $239,963, and these are 1.4 positions in the jail and one new assistant county attorney

•An increase of $260,000 in the corrections placement budget

•A state cost shift of $53,197 for the MN Choices program

•An estimated cost shift of $108,000 for guardian services for those with persistent mental health diagnosis from the Adult Mental Health grant funds for the Supportive Employment program to county tax dollars

•An estimated cost shift or loss of federal funding to children’s mental health residential treatment center in the amount of $65,000

•An estimated reduction of $21,000 in state child support incentive money as a result of decreased federal funding

Breaking the numbers down, modifications

According to Oscarson, these were some of the modifications made to the original proposed budget and levy to get to the result of the setting of the preliminary 9.742 percent levy:

•Reduce the proposed reserve contingency budget from $300,000 to $250,000 for a $50,000 budget and levy savings. It was recommended to prioritize $100,000 of this in the event that the board determines that client transportation needs negatively impact regular service that deputies provide and decide that more staff is needed to be hired

•Based on the proposal to add 1.4 additional jailers to the budget, the finance committee recommended reducing the jail overtime budget by $26,560. This would leave the overtime budget in the jail at $20,000, which is the same as the 2018 budget. Oscarson stated that although officials recognize that the current usage is above budget, the finance committee believes that additional jail hires would bring that portion of the jail budget back into balance

•Delete $45,000 for the development of a new county website and maintenance of the site. The committee suggested that the new county administrator could look at this new development and possible current IT staff could assist in redesign and administration of the website.

•Using $15,000 of reserves for web security software. The total cost was $20,000 and in 2020, there would be an annual maintenance cost of $5,000

•The finance committee also proposed using a combination of land records reserves and general reserves for the cost to upgrade the Unity Work Flow software, which would amount to a positive levy impact of $29,500

•Originally, the finance committee proposed adding $30,000 to the Grow Austin economic development initiative along with the use of reserves of $30,000. The goal was to set aside $30,000 per year over five years to build a grant pool of $150,000 for the initiative

•The county proposed to use $50,000 of reserves for the one-time funding of the Austin Community Rec Center project as opposed to using new tax levy dollars

•There’s a proposed $200,000 of reserves for the jail hardware/software upgrades if it’s deemed necessary versus new tax levy dollars

•It was proposed to decrease the initial interest income budget by $100,000 from the proposed $900,000. The 2018 budget was set at $525,000. The finance director wanted to continue to review rising interest rates before a final interest income budget is set in December

Other talking points

Both Oscarson and Sheriff Terese Amazi were honored and recognized for their multi-decade service to Mower County. Oscarson is set to retire officially on Friday, and yesterday was his last board meeting as county coordinator. Amazi is retiring at the end of the year.