Shawnee County approves 2024 budget of over $139 million
Shawnee County Commissioners Aaron Mays, Kevin Cook and Bill Riphahn voted 3-0 Thursday to approve a $139.67 million county budget for 2024, up more than $12 million from the $127.45 million budget they adopted for 2023.
The approved budget seeks to lower the county's property tax levy by 1.193 mills, from 49.861 to 48.668. The levy amount won't be certain until property valuation numbers are finalized.
Most Shawnee County homeowners will see their property taxes increase under the approved budget, as the county appraiser's office this year raised valuations for most properties.
'Some fairly deep cuts'
The increase in appraisal values will mean the county will collect about $6 million more in property tax revenue.
The county will collect $104.42 million in 2024 property tax revenue compared to last year's property tax revenue $98.353 million was collected.
The mill levy decrease approved Thursday was good for the county, Riphahn said.
"We had to make some fairly deep cuts today, but it looks like we got there," he said.
No current county jobs to be eliminated within budget
Betty Greiner, the county's administrative and financial services director, said no current county jobs will be eliminated due to the approved budget.
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"I think we did a lot, we did what we could to kind of hold back on the budget, so I feel pretty good about it," Riphahn said. "We've done a lot of work to try and come up with these numbers. No one's ever completely satisfied, but it is what it is now."
Keishera Lately is the business reporter for the Topeka Capital-Journal. She can be reached at klately@cjonline.com. Follow her on Twitter @Lately_KT.
This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Shawnee County OKs 2024 budget that includes slight mill levy drop
