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Bourbon County budget committee recommends top mill levy of 62.5 mills; recommendation goes to full commission
Summary
The county's budget committee recommended a top mill levy of 62.5 mills (a roughly 3-mill increase from the current 59.9), voting 4 in favor and 1 abstention, and set follow-up meetings to review department budgets.
The Bourbon County Budget Committee voted to recommend that the full county commission consider a top mill levy of 62.5 mills while the budget process continues. Committee members said the recommendation is a ceiling, not the final number, and they urged further review to try to lower it before the commission adopts a final levy.
Commissioner Carolyn (first name provided in the transcript) moved to recommend a 62.5-mill top levy; Commissioner Joe Smith seconded the motion. The committee reported four ayes and one abstention on the recommendation; the abstention was declared by a member who said they had not had time to review the materials sent earlier that day. The committee recorded the recommendation as 4-0-1 and will forward it as advice to the full commission.
Committee members framed the recommendation as a cautious middle position among competing goals: several members said they prefer a flat or lower mill levy but that new information about insurance, health-care-cost increases and equipment needs made a higher ceiling prudent until staff and the committee complete deeper budget reviews. Commissioners cited rising liability insurance (noted in the meeting as a roughly 15% increase), projected health-insurance increases and the need to restore reserve and equipment-replacement funds.
Speakers across the committee urged further line-item review. The group scheduled additional check-in meetings and agreed to focus the committee's next meeting on a detailed review of public works and other major departments; one proposed follow-up meeting date was July 23. The chairman or committee representative will present the committee's recommendation to the full county commission at its next scheduled commission meeting.
The committee's recommendation does not itself change tax rates; final mill-levy adoption remains the authority of the full Bourbon County Commission and will follow public notices and statutory deadlines.
