Washington County Board Certifies Tax Levy, Adopts Proposed Budget

Washington County’s taxpayer services staff is gearing up to answer questions about a change in state property law for 2012, said Kevin Corbid, Director of Property Records and Taxpayer Services.

They expect to field questions about what’s happening now that the Market Value Homestead Credit program is being eliminated in 2012, why it’s happening and how it will impact their tax bill—and that last part will be the toughest to answer, Corbid said at the Washington County Board meeting Tuesday, Sept. 13.

“The impact on individual property owners depending on where they live, what type of property they own—residential, commercial—the impact of this state law change is very different,” Corbid said.

Most property owners can expect to pay slightly more in county taxes, even though the county is reducing its budget and tax levy in 2012, Corbid said, because the state provided funding to the county for property tax relief under the program being cut.

Now some Washington County homeowners will still get that tax relief, but other county property taxpayers will have to fund it, he said.

Here are some of the numbers and facts from the proposed budget and tax levy, presented by deputy administrator Molly O’Rourke, and certified by the Washington County Board at its Sept. 13 meeting:

• From 2011 to 2012, operating expenditures would decrease 4.1 percent, capital expenditures would decrease 66.4 percent, the gross tax levy would decrease by 2.5 percent, the net tax levy would decrease by .3 percent and non-levy revenues would decrease by 8.5 percent.
• Funding cuts from the state over the past four years total $11.6 million.
• In 2011, Washington County’s operating costs per capita were the second lowest in the metro area and the third lowest statewide.
• In 2012, Washington County will have the equivalent of 45 fewer full time employees than it did in 2008.
• Washington County’s proposed operating expenditures for 2012 total $139.8 million and capital expenditures total $21 million.
• Washington County’s preliminary net tax levy totals $86.5 million.