Proposed Brown County Budget Released

The proposed 2010 budget for Brown County has been released. The Green Bay Press Gazette reports:

Brown County Executive Tom Hinz has proposed a 2010 budget that would increase spending about $4.1 million, add $7 of tax to every $100,000 of property value, and cut 13 full-time positions....

The total proposed budget of $240,412,022 $240 million includes a tax levy of $84,741,235 about $85 million. If approved, it would raise the tax rate from 4.5444 to 4.6122 per $100,000 of property value , an increase of 1.4920 about 1.5 percent.

While I don't envy the county government in their task of budgeting during such tough economic times, I read this description and I see taxes up, spending up, services cut. As an outsider looking in, this seems like an odd combination.

While a tax increase of 1.5% may seem slight, there are undoubtedly families in Brown County that will be negatively impacted by this amount. In a high unemployment and stagnant wage environment, even a modest increase can loom rather large.

You can read the proposed Brown County budget here. At the link there is also a message from County Executive Tom Hinz.

The supervisors will vote on the budget on November 9th.