Washington County Supervisors Narrowly Approve Budget with 2.58 Increase

On November 15th, the Washington County Board of Supervisors narrowly adopted the 2014 budget. The vote was extremely close with 9 Supervisors with a weighted vote of 2,195 voting “Yes,” and 8 Supervisors with a weighted vote of 2,065 voting “No.”

Supervisor Banks of Dresden voted “Yes”.

The budget will raise the tax levy by 2.58 percent.

The biggest controversy saw the Supervisors vote against pay increases for themselves, thus saving $5,800 from the total budget. The tax levy will increase from $29.4 million in 2013 to $30.1 million in 2014.

The proposed budget is posted on Washington County’s website here. (The budget message on pages 1 & 2, (3 & 4 of the linked pdf) explain the 2014 budget well.) The only change to this proposed budget was that the total to be raised, and the tax levy are both $5,800 smaller due to the Supervisors not voting themselves a pay raise. The final adopted budget should be posted on the Washington County website in the next few days.