Douglas County commissioners are preparing to fill their budget hole by digging deeper into county residents’ wallets.

The county’s recommended budget for next year calls for a 2.89-mill increase in property taxes, enough to cost the owner of a $150,000 home another $49.85 in taxes for next year. A mill equals $1 in taxes for every $1,000 of a property’s assessed valuation.

With property values rising across the county, commissioners know the financial pain of a tax increase would cut even deeper for many families — but they also understand that the alternative could hurt even more, given the effects of state budget cuts that have drained county coffers.

“You could ask an individual — ‘Do you want to see your property taxes increase?’ — and the answer’s no,” Commissioner Bob Johnson said. “And then you ask the individual, specifically, ‘What would you like to see? Fewer sheriff’s deputies?’ No, they don’t want to see that.

“‘Would you prefer to see your roads not as well maintained?’ No, they don’t want to see that.

“‘Would you prefer that we close the county courthouse one day a week and lay off people?’ No, they don’t want to see that.

“So, sure, nobody wants to see their taxes increased … but since the state didn’t send us the money that we were rightfully due, we have no choice. I believe we have to raise taxes, as little as possible, but we have to raise taxes.”

The proposed tax hike is included in a $45.6 million budget plan recommended by Craig Weinaug, county administrator. The spending total would represent a 2.2 percent increase from this year’s $44.6 million.

Commissioners are set to review the plan beginning at 1 p.m. Monday, during formal budget hearings at the county courthouse, 1100 Mass.

Commissioner Jere McElhaney: “There’s a limit.”

Adding employees

The recommended budget calls for an across-the-board wage increase of 2 percent for county employees, plus the hiring of several new ones:

• Four sheriff’s deputies, to bolster security at the expanded Judicial & Law Enforcement Center, 111 E. 11th St., and for transport of prisoners to and from the Douglas County Jail in southeast Lawrence.
• Three emergency dispatchers, to handle increasing numbers of 911 calls for police, sheriff and fire and medical services.
• Three firefighter/paramedics for Lawrence-Douglas County Fire & Medical, which is preparing to add a station in Lawrence.

The dispatchers and firefighter/paramedics were supposed to have been hired this year, but their financing was cut in January after state government helped balance its own budget by keeping about $1.8 million previously committed for the county’s use.

The state’s cuts already forced the county to cut into its own budget to make ends meet. In January, commissioners dropped seven other jobs from the county payroll, trimmed maintenance programs and postponed several construction projects.

Without such budget-balancing “heavy lifting” a few months ago, commissioners would have been looking at an even bigger problem this time around, Commissioner Jere McElhaney said.

“We anticipated this, no two ways about it,” McElhaney said. “Still, it doesn’t give us an excuse to raise our mill levy.”

‘There’s a limit’

The tax boost, coupled with rising property values, would be expected to pour $26.8 million in property taxes into the county budget for next year. That would be an increase of $4.1 million from the $22.7 million for this year, and allow for hiring the new employees, maintaining existing services and restoring financing for a handful of construction projects, such as a $640,000 building for equipment storage at the Douglas County 4-H Fairgrounds.

Relying only on rising valuations — by holding the tax rate steady — would lead the county to collect $24.3 million, up $1.6 million.

McElhaney said he was intrigued about the prospects for holding the property-tax rate steady, even as Weinaug’s budget predicts flat collections from sales taxes and offers other revenue-related warning signs.

Come Monday, McElhaney said, he intends to reveal his ideas for cutting expenses.

“How many services, or how expensive of services, does government have to provide for everybody to be fat and happy?” McElhaney said. “I mean, there’s limitations. There’s a limit. And anymore, we just can’t be everything to everybody, and we have to work within reason. I think the economy dictates that.”

Commissioner Charles Jones, meanwhile, considers himself “somewhere in between” Johnson and McElhaney on the issue of taxes.

‘Horse trading’ ahead

If he is to break the political stalemate, Jones intends to look for support in financing nursing programs in public schools — at a potential annual cost of up to $992,500 — or in overhauling the way the county finances certain road, sewer and other projects.

“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I’m not going to support a tax increase if it both turns its back on our school needs and continues some of the (county’s) sprawl subsidies,” Jones said. “We’re going to have to make some adjustments. … We’ve got three commissioners who are coming in with somewhat different viewpoints, and I suspect there will be a lot of horse trading before this is all over.”