The Franklin County Commission gave final approval to its 2018-2019 budget Tuesday night

The Franklin County Commission gave final approval to its 2018-2019 budget Tuesday night.

The nearly 51 million dollar budget will take effect on October the 1^st.

The new budget represents about a 1.8 percent tax increase over the current budget.

The amount that will be paid by local taxpayers is a little over 11.8 million dollars which is about a 335 thousand dollars more than last year.

Much of the local tax increase comes from a 3 percent across the board cost of living increase for county workers as well as a 7 percent increase in the cost of health insurance and in payments to the Florida retirement system.

The county also increased the sheriff's budget for needed repairs and upgrades to the county jail and provided some extra funding to the elections office for an upgrade to election system software .

The parks and recreation department also saw a small increase to its budget.

Under the new budget, people with a 150 thousand dollar home and a 50 thousand dollar homestead exemption will see their annual taxes increase by about 16 dollars in the coming year.

If you have a 100 thousand dollar home that is homesteaded you’ll pay about 12 dollars more in taxes. 

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