Foster County mill levy up 25% in 2024

At a brief regular meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 17, Foster County commissioners approved a final budget and certificate of levy for 2025.

The documentation presented to commissioners shows a total mill levy of 100.83, or approximately $3.276 million in taxes to be collected in 2025.

Of that, 29.53 mills will go toward the county's general fund and 25 mills, or about $800,000, has been levied for county roads. Meanwhile, 10 mills have been levied for both the ambulance and capital improvement.

Overall, the number of mills levied in this final budget is 25% higher than last year, when just 81.13 mills were levied, or approximately $2.636 million.

In fact, before this final budget, the tax burden in Foster County had been steadily declining since 2020. That year, the county levied 84.86 mills. By 2023, the total mill levy had decreased to 81.13.

Similarly, the number of mills levied for the county's general fund has decreased from 35.12 in 2020, to 27.93 a year ago. This year's final budget shows a slight increase to 29.53, or approximately $959,000.

The overall mill levy increase to 100.83 is due to the 25-mill levy for ongoing road repairs, which was approved in the June primary with 60.9% voting in favor. Prior to that election, Foster County had only been levying two mills for county roads.

In other business, Kip Kovar of Garrison Diversion returned to the county commission. However, they did not discuss any follow-up to the commission's compromise proposal regarding the dump ground road.

Instead, Kovar requested a special meeting during which they could dive into that issue and others without any constraints on time.

The commission agreed, and a special meeting was set for 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 2 in the courthouse.

The board's next regular meeting is scheduled for the previous day, at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 1, also in the courthouse.