By JONATHAN ZWEYGARDT
Hays Post
The Ellis County Commission set out to lower the mill levy for the upcoming 2024 budget year, and when the final numbers were calculated this month, that is exactly what they accomplished.
Last week County Administrator Darin Myers informed the commission the clerk’s office completed the calculations for the final mill levy for 2024, and it resulted in a drop of .933 mills to 36.642.
The fire district mill levy also saw a reduction of about .6, according to Myers.
For 2023, the county mill levy was 37.575 mills. The fire mill levy will drop from 4.007 to 3.406.
“Depending on where you live out in the county, if you live in the unincorporated areas of the county, you'll see about 1.5 mill reduction,” Myers said. “If you live in any of the cities — Ellis, Hays, Victoria or Schoenchen — where just the county's mill levy is assessed, you'll see about a .933 mill reduction.”
Myers said part of the reduction was a large tax abatement for the transmission line that goes up 180th Avenue to the Goodman Energy Center and to the northeast portion of the county.
That was a two-phase project with the first portion of the project being from the Spearville area to the Goodman Energy Center north of Hays, Myers said. The 10-year abatement on the first phase ended this year. Myers said he thinks phase two, which is from Osborne County to the Nebraska state line, will end next year.
“Total wise this year, it was about $500,000 in valuation that will get assessed, and that's why we see about that mill reduction. Next year, there should be about another $370,000 assessed that will come off our valuation,” Myers said. “Based on our mill levy calculation now, that would be about six-tenths of a mill.”
Myers said that is assuming the budget and valuations remain the same.
County Commissioner Michael Berges said he believes the commission accomplished their goal.
“We're still going to get beat up a little bit, taxes are going up, appraisal values have gone up, but I think we still accomplished what we can do on our end as far as looking at the budget, making some cuts and reducing the mill,” Berges said.