Davis budget moves forward

FARMINGTON — It's going to take $86.7 million to run Davis County next year, up about $10 million from the 2006 budget.

The Davis County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday gave tentative approval to a proposed 2007 budget that includes a property-tax increase of $60 per year on the average home valued at $171,000.

The tax increase is slated to fund three areas of county government that the county didn't address in the 2006 budget: operations and personnel in the expanded Davis County Jail, repairs on a deteriorating flood-control system and a variety of services in the county's Division of Senior Services.

The increase is expected to bring $6.8 million per year to county coffers for those three areas, said Steve Rawlings, Davis County clerk/auditor. The largest portion of the tax increase will fund the jail operations, and will bring in $4.2 million. But estimated expenses for the jail operations are closer to $6.8 million.

"How can we do it with $4.2 million?" Rawlings asked.

He explained that the committee of residents that was formed to explore the need for the jail recommended that the Davis County Sheriff's Office rent out extra beds in the expanded jail to the federal government for the next few years to make up the difference.

The county hired 25 new employees during 2006 for the expanded jail and will hire 60 during 2007.

The next highest portion of the tax increase, for the county's 19 flood-control channels, will generate about $1.6 million for the county's Department of Public Works. Concrete and steel pipes have eroded away decades earlier than they were supposed to, said Tom Smith, the department's director. Smith will get 2.4 full-time-employee equivalents in the new budget.

The third portion of the tax increase will give Lewis Garrett, director of the Davis County Health Department, three full-time-employee equivalents and $1 million for the Division of Senior Services. Garrett's case workers in that division handle case loads of 40 to 50 people. The division's waiting list has 120 senior citizens in need of services, he said.

Meals on Wheels and the county's three senior centers have been receiving complaints about the quality of food they serve, and the tax increase will help upgrade the food, as well as pay for replacing vehicles, an oven and refrigerators, Garrett said.