COMMISSION ABANDONS TAX HIKE IDEA
The word is out. There will be no tax increase included in next year’s proposed Carbon County budget.
According to Commissioner Jae Potter, the three commissioners listened to some serious thoughts concerning the proposed tax increase discussed in several public gatherings two weeks ago and decided to withdraw the tax rate increase. Commissioners will go back to the drawing board to balance the budget with existing revenues.
“We know what the revenues are and we know that we can’t continue to live off the surpluses,” said Potter. “And we decided that we needed to make what will be some very hard decisions so that we could propose a budget without a tax increase.”
Meeting Friday
This new budget will be presented at a special county commission meeting set for this Friday, December 1 in the commission chambers.
The commissioners are looking at reducing services as well as several different plans on restructuring employees so that in the end, the new budget proposal for 2018 will not include a tax increase.
Once the budget is proposed this Friday, there will be a scheduled budget hearing set for December 13 at 6:00 p.m. At this meeting they will re-open the public hearing on the proposed tax increase where Potter said the commissioners are ready to vote no. The final budget will be passed on December 20.