The commissioners voted unanimously last Thursday, Sept. 3, to set the overall tax levy at 29.39 cents per $100 in assessed valuation. The 2008 rate was 27.39 cents.

No one attended last Thursday's public hearing held before the commissioners approved the tax rate.

The 2009 tax rate for general revenue was set at 12.35 cents and the road and bridge levy is 17.04 cents per $100 of assessed valuation. The county is expecting to generate $1,531,565 from both funds, with $887,985 from the road and bridge fund.

The 2008 rate was 10.48 cents for general revenue and 16.81 cents for the road and bridge fund. Last year's tax rate was set with estimations of generating $1,418,853 in revenue.

Presiding Commissioner Arden Engelage pointed out the tax rate for the general fund could have been set as high as 23.65 cents. The road and bridge levy was set at the maximum level allowed by law.

The county tax rate was 26.51 cents in 2005, 24.69 cents in 2006 and 26.74 cents in 2007.

The commissioners said a reason for the slight increase was due to a continued decrease in sales tax revenues for the second straight year. County Treasurer Gene Cornell reported that sales tax receipts were at $895,535.04 or 7 percent short of the budgeted amount.

The 2009 budget anticipated sales tax revenue to total $1,247,743.75.

At this time last year, the county had received $996,927.31 in sales tax.

In 2008, the county received $1,303,241.04 in sales tax revenue which was $78,550.22 below the estimate of $1,381,791.26. In 2007, the county earned $1,357,080.86 from sales taxes.

"Because of the sales tax declining, it's forcing us to go up a little bit," Engelage said. "We knew (sales tax revenues) would be tighter than what we anticipated."

The combined real estate and personal property assessed valuations is projected at $521,117,840, an increase of $1,318,399 from the previous year.

Real estate assessed valuation is estimated at $428,786,988, up from $419,079,459 in 2008. Personal property assessed valuation is projected to drop to $92,330,852 from the 2008 figure of $100,719,982.

Northern District Commissioner Dan Hampson said the various county departments have been working with the commissioners to watch expenses.

"The department heads have been very frugal and cooperative in keeping costs down," he said.