The St. Joseph County Board of Commissioners has set the county operating millage to be levied July 1 at 4.5482 mills.
The action came on a 5-to-1 vote Tuesday (June 5) with Commissioner Jerry Loudenslager dissenting.
Loudenslager indicated his intention to vote “no” prior to the vote. He said, “I think at this particular time, with the reserve fund where it stands for 2013, I think the citizens deserve a cut in their millage and I would propose moving it down to 4.4.”
Loudenslager was the only commissioner to comment on the matter and the 5-to-1 vote followed. The seventh member of the board, Commissioner John Dobberteen, was absent.
According to a ‘2012 Tax Rate Request’ form prepared by Equalization Director Judy Nelson, the recommended levy of 4.5482 mills is the ‘Maximum Allowable Millage Levy’ and is identical to the millage rate in 2011.
In other business, the board adopted a resolution for ‘Designation of the County Enforcing Agency for the Soil Erosion and Sedimentation Control Act’. The resolution notes that the commission on May 15, 2012 designated the Drain Office as the county enforcing agency for the act and “adopted a fee schedule as presented by Jeffery Wenzel, elected drain commissioner, on said date.”
