Franklin County commission gives tentative approval for new budget

The Franklin County Commission has given tentative approval to next year’s budget and local taxpayers are looking at about a two and a half percent tax increase.

The 52.3 million dollar budget received tentative approval on Monday afternoon during the county’s first public budget hearing.

The total budget is about 1.9 million dollars than the current budget.

The amount that will be paid by local taxpayers is a little over 11.6 million dollars which is about a half million dollars more than last year.

Much of the local tax increase comes from an across the board cost of living increase for county workers, which totals about 214 thousand dollars.

Increases in the cost of health insurance totalled about 162 thousand dollars, and a required increase in payments to the Florida retirement service added another 46 thousand dollars to the total.

The county will also have to take over the transfer station at the local landfill in the coming year which increases the county's expense for solid waste.

Under the proposed budget, people with a 150 thousand dollar home and a 50 thousand dollar homestead exemption will see their annual taxes increase by about 20 dollars in the coming year.

If you have a 100 thousand dollar home that is homesteaded you’ll pay about 13 dollars more in taxes.

There is one more public hearing before the budget takes effect on October 1^st.

That hearing will be held on September the 19^th at 5:15.

http://live.oysterradio.com/