June 10, 2021 at 1:12 p.m.
Cass board approves 2016 levy and budget
The final levy will include a 4.19 percent increase from 2015, as presented at the Dec. 1 public hearing. That is down from the preliminary levy set in September, which was 6.4 percent higher than 2015.
The levy includes $20,182,969 for county operations, which is levied against all county properties and $846,057 for Longville Ambulance Service, which is levied only against properties in the ambulance service district. The total county and ambulance 2016 levy is $21,029,026.
This equates to a 31.45 county tax rate for 2016, which remains the lowest of all surrounding counties.
The final county budget, after adding state and federal aids and grants plus fee receipts and the new half-cent sales tax for transportation, calls for the county to receive $53,887,499 revenue in 2016 and to spend $54,590,198. If spending does exceed revenues as expected by this budget, county reserves set aside from prior year surpluses will be used to pay the difference.
The budget includes the 2016 share of an agreement with Cass County Housing and Redevelopment Authority for the county to pay $35,000 in 2016 and again in 2017 toward HRA operations. The board has advised HRA their board must find other sources than the county to help fund its operations beginning in 2018.
Cass expects to have to use at least $500,000 of its reserve fund to cover expected increase out of home child placement and child protection service costs beyond state funding to cover expected cost increases due to new state rules requiring extra county actions to ensure child safety.
Cass Soil and Water Conservation District requested at the Dec. 1 public hearing that the $7,250 county has paid SWCD for services should be reinstated in the final budget, because a $100,000 grant they expect to receive in 2016 cannot be used for general operations.
Tuesday, the county board voted to reinstate that $7,250 in 2016, paying the amount from the commissioners' fund.
The budget includes implementing a $3 increase to the fee garbage haulers pay the county to dump garbage loads at the transfer station north of Pine River. This increase brings income up to match the cost the county pays to have garbage hauled from Pine River to dump in into a landfill at Elk River.
Salaries for elected county officials were set at a 2.5 percent increase for 2016, the same increase rate as is scheduled to take effect for union employees under previously approved contracts.
This puts the county attorney's annual pay at $118,081.60, the sheriff's at $101,857.60 and the recorder's at $73,569.60. All three have 10 years or more of service with the county, so are on the top step of the county pay scale and will not receive any additional step increases.
They do, however, qualify for an annual longevity payment.
The commissioners gave themselves a 2.5 percent raise for 2016, setting their salaries at $24,853.16.
With the exceptions of the first meeting each month, board of auditors, board of equalization and canvassing board, the commissioners also receive $75 per day for each county board meeting they attend or meeting the board assigns them to attend as a board representative.
Citizen representatives the board appoints to various county commissions and boards each year receive a $75 per day payment for attending those meetings, plus mileage at the current IRS rate for that year. The per diem rate is unchanged from recent prior years.
The county board approved $1,732,705 for mostly computer equipment, a few new vehicles, plus some office equipment. The list also includes a new motor grader, two tandem trucks with plows, two loader backhoes with trailers and some small equipment for the highway department.
It also includes $75,000 for a new sound system for one courtroom and $10,000 for Americans with Disabilities Act impaired hearing devices for courtrooms.
Central Services Director Tim Richardson obtained board approval for continuing repairs upgrades for the courthouse complex and health, human and veterans services buildings. These include the heating and cooling systems, sidewalks, carpets and dealing with a plastic skylight/cupola in the courthouse annex, which is now 40 years old.
Acting as a town board for the unorganized townships in northeastern Cass, the commissioners set the 2016 township levy at $245,000.
The board approved renewing the county's contract for 2016 with medical examiner Dr. Michael B. McGee, who is based in Ramsey County.
He is paid $250 monthly salary. Cost for a complete forensic autopsy with basic toxicology runs approximately $2,000. The cost of external examination with basic toxicology costs approximately $1,000.
The county also pays court-related services such as case preparation, travel time to and from Cass County and in-court testimony time at $300 per hour.
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