The Franklin County Commission gave preliminary approval to its 2023-2024 budget last week

The Franklin County Commission gave preliminary approval to its 2023-2024 budget last week.

The proposed budget is a little over 96.7 million dollars.

As it stands, local taxpayers would pay about 16 million of that, up from around 14.4 million this year.

The budget does represent a tax increase of 12.2 percent.

A homeowner with a house valued at $150,000 with a $50,000 homestead exemption would have paid $547 in county taxes in 2022.

At the proposed 2023 rate and the Consumer Price Index adjustment to value, that homeowner will pay $564 in county taxes.

The budget does include funding the third and fourth year of a 5 year pay and classification plan that will change pay scales for county workers.

There is also a 4 percent increase in county health insurance premiums.

There were also increases in constitutional offices budgets, the county hired a few new employees and there was a required increase in the amount going to county employee retirement.

Overall, there is about 2.6 million dollars in budget increases this year, along with 463 thousand dollars in budget cuts.

It will require one more public hearing before it can take effect on October the 1st.

The final public budget hearing will be held on Tuesday, September the 26th at 5:15pm.

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