The Board of Lewis County Commissioners (BOCC) unanimously approved increasing the county’s general property tax levy by 2.98% and the county roads property levy by 2.77% in 2025 compared to 2024 during a budget hearing Monday morning.
The increases, adopted via a resolution, come as the county adopted its 2025 budget. According to the resolution, the property tax levy will raise an additional $458,506.98, and the regular levy will be set at $16,500,000, while the road levy will raise an additional $398,046, with the county road levy set at $15,400,000.
While jurisdictions are typically restricted to increasing property taxes by no more than 1%, the commissioners utilized the county’s banked capacity, which allowed the commissioners to increase the property tax by a greater percentage after not increasing the property tax in previous years.
During the commissioners' meeting Monday morning, the commissioners also adopted the 2025 final budget. In a presentation outlining the budget, County Manager Ryan Barrett said the 2025 budget projects to raise $190,699,983 in revenue and has $193,810,836 in expenses.
“They put together a budget that I believe is sound and provides for the kinds of services that people expect, including law enforcement,” Lewis County Commissioner Scott Brummer said. “Putting this together has been a challenge, but it’s one that our folks have risen to, and I think this represents the very best possible outcome for 2025.”
The Chronicle will have additional coverage on the budget adopted by Lewis County commissioners as well as recent discussions over the use of the recently passed 911 tax in the next edition and at chronline.com.
Before voting on the property tax increases, the county commissioners spoke to the difficulty of the decision.
“For the past year, since I’ve been a county commissioner, I’ve been very staunch on not taking the 1%. I don’t think, in government, taxation is the way to get out of a situation, and I think it’s punitive when it comes to property tax, that the property owners have to carry the burden,” Commissioner Sean Swope said.
Swope added that while he did not initially support the levy, it was needed to ensure that the county did not cut from public safety.
“Voting for this is strictly for making sure that we don’t cut deputies,” Swope said.
In her remarks, Commissioner Lindsey Pollock said while she did not like increasing property taxes, the county has “no other way at this point” to balance the budget.
“And I am unwilling, as I was last year, to dip into reserves to balance the budget because we don't have anything left,” Pollock said. “If we dip into reserves at this point, we will go beneath the three-month reserve that is recommended to just maintain basic government solvency.”
The county’s preliminary budget initially called for the use of $3.3 million from the general fund, which would have left an “estimated ending fund balance below the recommendation and best practice outlined by the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA),” according to a Sept. 30 budget memo.
“While none of us like tax increases, that’s why the last two years, since I’ve been here, the last two budget seasons, we did not vote for even the one percent increase that’s allowed,” Brummer said. “However, we have seen significant increases due to inflation. Across the board, the cost of employees, the cost of fuel, the same kind of things that you and I have in our daily budget have increased for the county. Those costs have gone up dramatically.”
Brummer added that the county “would not even come close” to keeping up with inflation, even with the increase.
“We’re still falling behind, and do have deficits,” Brummer said. “I believe that this budget is not necessarily a compromise, as much as it is a lot of hard work that’s taken months to get through by dedicated staff and dedicated people who serve the citizens of Lewis County.”
