(Spirit Lake)– The Dickinson county board of supervisors today (Monday) adopted the county’s budget for the upcoming fiscal year. But there’s a slight change to what was originally proposed.
Norvin Johnson of the Dickinson county Farm Bureau expressed opposition to a 30 percent general fund balance that was being proposed for the end of the upcoming fiscal year. He said it should be lowered to 25 percent of the county’s budget to be more in line with the 20 to 25 percent recommended by the state. Johnson hinted at the possibility of the budget being appealed if that isn’t done. The supervisors took the threat seriously and voted unanimously to reduce the projected balance to 25 percent. The five percent reduction amounts to about 160-thousand dollars. That money will go into a fund to help defray expenses in the upcoming courthouse project. That fund currently has 700-thousand dollars in it.
The change will have no impact on the levy for the upcoming fiscal year, which will remain as proposed at $3.33 per thousand dollars valuation for the general fund and the rural basic at $5.01. The supervisors warned there’s a very real possibility that the rural basic fund, already stretched to the limit, may have to be increased in the 2004-2005 fiscal year budget.
