County budget proposal calls for four-cent tax increase

By COBY LaRUE
Staff

Alleghany County Manager Don Adams presented the Alleghany County Board of Commissioners with a proposed budget that would increase local property taxes by four cents.

The tax rate is currently 55 cents per $100 in value. If the budget is passed as presented, it would raise that to 59 cents per $100. However, several other projects and requests are on the table that could potentially lead to an even larger tax increase.

The budget total was $11,090,995, almost 4 percent higher than last year's budget.

Items contributing to the increase were highlighted by Adams in a report given to commissioners.

Each penny of county taxes will create about $99,225 in revenues, Adams said. The four-cent increase raises $396,900 in revenues. The county's property taxes account for 55 percent of revenues, or $6,019,800 under the budget.

He broke out the tax increase in several categories:

County raises — the second year of the county's salary study implementation ($85,000) and a 1.875 percent cost of living raise ($53,000) for a total of $138,000. That amount equates to a 1.39 cent tax increase;

Capital — purchases listed in the budget include a $34,327 payment on a new software package for the county's finance department; $1,600 for a new color laser printer for the mapping department; a new deeds package for the Register of Deeds office at an annual lease rate of $32,700; a new snow plow ($4,500) and copier ($2,900) for the maintenance department; a four-wheel drive vehicle ($23,564) for the sheriff's department; and two IV pumps for the Ambulance Service ($4,500) for a total of 1.05 cents of the tax increase;

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