The 6.758 percent property tax levy increase written into the 2018 Mower County budget is not written in stone.

“The Finance Committee will continue to scrutinize budget requests until Dec. 19,” County Coordinator Craig Oscarson said Thursday evening at the county’s annual, state-mandated, Truth-in-Taxation public hearing in the government center in Austin.

The County Board will need to approve a final version by Dec. 19, and commissioners have indicated they want to have a tax rate lower than the cap they were required to certify earlier this fall.

“The committee’s goal is to attain a final levy for 2018 below 5 percent by budget adjustments or further use of reserves,” he said.

The committee — Commissioners Jerry Reinartz and Polly Glynn — are reviewing potential increases in county fees and service charges to offset property taxes.

As it stands today, the 6.758 percent increase produces $21,194,869 in property tax revenue for the 2018 budget with $56,325,190 in expenditures. The balance is from non-property tax levy revenue, such as fees and state aid.

“Individual taxpayers will see increases that are both below and above the 6.758 percent preliminary levy in 2018,” Oscarson said. “The main reason for this is due to changes in value. The Assessor’s Office, due to (the) market, has increased residential values by an average of 6 percent, decreased agricultural land values by an average of 8 percent, and commercial properties in total have a 2 percent increase associated with that particular class of property.”

Oscarson listed major areas of change for the county budget, starting with an increase of $156,598 in County Program Aid from the state, as well as about $90,000 in additional expenses because of state mandates and the shifting of state costs to counties.

Other major Health and Human Services budget increases driven by state and federal requirements are a $119,820 increase in the placement budget and $16,900 for parent assessments. A proposed rate increase for a Rule 25 chemical dependency assessment is $2,800.

The county budget includes a rate increase of 10 percent for county burials, which means a $19,000 revenue increase.

The county will see a reduction of $257,755 in revenue because of a change in how assessing is done.

“The 2018 budgets of all 14 cities and all 20 townships will be positively impacted and in essence the loss of county revenue is more of a property tax shift from the cities and townships to the county,” Oscarson said.

Also built into the expense budget are:

$161,537 to add one clerk/dispatcher, a custodian and a human resource clerical support position as well as upgrading a position in the County Auditor-Treasurer’s Office.

• $89,950 for cameras for the Sheriff’s squad cars and $7,900 for the SIRT program.

• $30,000 for an additional squad car

• $513,784 to cover a 15 percent increase in employee health insurance rates.

Other decreases in revenue include:

• $50,000 less in interest income, mainly due to the county budgeting to do an additional $6 million of highway construction projects

• $133,374 decrease in wind production tax revenue.