The Board of Meade County Commissioners has been focused on reducing the property tax burden by decreasing the County’s mill levy and managing the budget. Fiscal management has allowed the Commission to drop county levies by 26.74% since 2011. Meade County now has the lowest consolidated levy since 1970 and property tax revenue collection is at a 5 year low. By not taking the maximum tax levy as allowed by law, the County has saved property taxpayers $4.7 million in just the past 5 years.
As a result of the historically low county levy; Meade County’s share of the property tax dollar has decreased from $0.31 in 2012 to $0.27 in 2016. The tax dollar is split between:
- Schools - $0.58
- County - $0.27
- Cities - $0.11
- *Other - $.04
* Road/Paving, Sanitation, Fire, Ambulance Districts and Townships
More property tax savings can be found via our Discretionary Formula which allows the level of assessment for all qualifying structures to be at 0% for 5 years. Over $31 million in property valuation has fallen under this economic development effort and accounts for another $2 million in uncollected property taxes.
Managing the tax burden can only be done by making what are at times - tough budget decisions. In partnership with fellow elected officials and county staff; a 5 year effort of managing internal fiscal/policy controls has yielded $2.8 million in savings. In part, these cost savings are attributed to the reduction of county staff, combining offices (Sheriff/Coroner), combing staff positions and areas of responsibility. An estimated savings of nearly $800,000 is solely due to county offices managing staff overtime hours.
The Meade County Commission is providing this information on Meade County’s mill levy history, property tax revenue collection, and budget cuts.
