Tonight the Davis County Commission is expected to approve an $87.4 million budget that includes no new taxes.

The proposed 2005 budget marks the second year in a row Davis County leaders have shied away from raising taxes. The last increase came in the 2003 budget and angered residents, causing many of them to vote to oust Commissioner Michael Cragun during the 2004 election.

A public hearing on the budget will be in the historic Memorial Courthouse at 6:30 p.m.

Nearly $13 million is packed into the budget this year to pay for jail expansion, Davis County Clerk/Auditor Steve Rawlings said. Voters approved a bond to pay for the $24.8 million addition in November.

The county is currently paying off the bond that paid for construction of the jail, which opened in 1991. Payment for the new addition won't begin until 2006.

Paramedic service in Davis County will improve after adding units to cities in the county, Rawlings said. The budget funds one additional paramedic unit in Layton and two units at the newly created South Davis Metro Fire Agency. The Davis County Sheriff's office will add four paramedic units to its fleet.

"They wanted to increase their paramedic coverage," Rawlings said.

The budget include financial incentives for employees who participate in a wellness program to improve their health, Rawlings said. County employees will also receive a 2 percent cost-of-living adjustment for the upcoming year.

Also included is a retirement incentive program for public safety employees, Rawlings said. The incentive affects about two dozen employees who have worked in the county for 20 years and are still working.

Nearly eight new positions within the county are funded in the proposed budget, including jobs at the jail, sheriff's office and at aging services.

The new budget contains money to repair the battered seven-mile Antelope Island causeway, a project that probably won't be finished until the end of the heavy tourist season next fall.

With the low water level of the Great Salt Lake, the sides of the causeway have been exposed and will be easier to fix. Most of the repairs will be replacing stones lining the causeway.

The causeway was under water from the floods of 1983 until it was reopened in 1992. A couple of years ago, the state gave the causeway between Syracuse and Antelope Island State Park to the county. The county receives $2 of the $8 per-vehicle park admission fee for road maintenance.

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E-mail: ldethman@desnews.com