The Douglas County commission meets in the historic courtroom on the second floor of the old county courthouse, 1100 Massachusetts St.

The Douglas County Commission took a step closer to finalizing its 2018 budget at its Wednesday meeting by approving the budget for publication.

The $95.5 million budget calls for a 46.008 mill levy to raise $58.9 million from property taxes. That is an increase of 1.916 mills from the 2017 budget. At the proposed rate, the total tax on a $150,000 single-family home would be $828.

A number of new spending initiatives are included in the budget, including $1.98 million in new funding for behavioral health programs, $211,000 to hire three new patrol deputies and $130,000 for a second pro tem judge for Douglas County District Court.

The publication will also serve as a notice of a public hearing on the budget at 4 p.m. Aug. 9 at the Douglas County Courthouse. Commissioners will consider formal adoption of the budget after the public hearing. At that time, commissioners can reduce expenditures listed in the published budget, but they cannot increase them.

In other business, commissioners approved an amendment to the county sanitary waste code that creates a setback requirement for the application of septic tank waste on rural pastures.

The amendment, written by the Lawrence-Douglas County Health Department, will ban the ground application of septic tank waste within 500 feet of a residence. Charlotte Marthaler, the health department’s assistant director, said the rule would not apply if the residence belonged to the person applying the waste.

When the issue came before the commission in September 2016, it was explained to commissioners that Environmental Protection Agency rules ban the spreading of septic waste on lands used to produce crops for human consumption, which essentially limits its application to pastures.

Scott Helm, owner of Honey-Bee Septic Service, said the practice of spreading septic waste on pastures was critical to rural residents who rely on septic tanks. The only other way to dispose of the waste, he said, would be to use the city of Lawrence’s wastewater plant. The city’s charge of $137 per 1,000 gallons made that option prohibitive, he said.

Helm compared the city’s fee to that charged by Topeka, which he said was $37.50 per 1,000 gallons.

Douglas County Administrator Craig Weinaug said city officials have told him that the city charges what it costs to treat waste and sees no reason to reduce its fee.

Nonetheless, Commissioner Nancy Thellman said the issue should be added to the list of things county commissioners would discuss with members of the Lawrence City Commission at a planned but yet-to-be-scheduled meeting. County commissioners want to discuss funding priorities for both bodies, especially for those programs that have historically received funding from both the city and the county. Lawrence City Manager Tom Markus has raised concerns that such joint funding places an unfair burden on city taxpayers.

Weinaug said the joint meeting would be scheduled once both bodies had wrapped up 2018 budget deliberations.