Riley County Commissioners gathered Thursday to continue adjusting the budget for fiscal year 2013.
Commissioners finalized a $500,000 transfer from the general fund to the capital improvement project fund. That increased the CIP balance from $500,000 to $1 million.
“The modification of the CIP transfer will allow the commission to activate $500,000 of non-funded CIP projects in 2013,” Johnette Shepek, county budget and finance officer, said.
The Riley County Health Department’s appropriation was increased from $212,000 to $215,000 to account for cost of living adjustments.
Also, the commission decided to allocate just $45,000 to the animal shelter fund; $20,000 less than the requested amount.
Collectively, the changes produced a tentative mill levy rate of 35.557.
“As it stands, we’re projected at under 0.8 of a mill of an increase,” Dave Lewis, Riley County Commissioner, said. “I know I’d like to see it come down even more so, but I think we’ve done a good job thus far.”
County commissioners are expected to broach sales tax figures with county treasurer Eileen King at next Monday’s work session.
“Hopefully, (Eileen) King will let us push the sales tax number up a bit, which in turn will mean that we can lower property tax costs,” Karen McCulloh, Riley County Commissioner, said.
The final 2013 budget proposal is due to the state by the end of July.
