By Dan Verbeck
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kcur/local-kcur-992832.mp3
Kansas City, MO. – For people who live in Jackson County, Missouri, property taxes will be taking a dip this coming year, if the administration has its way. The choice is now up to local legislators.
The proposed 2012 budget handed from the county legislature this afternoon is balanced and designed with a 2.4 percent cut in property taxes.
The budget plan includes money to improve the courthouse annex in Independence, pay part of a new sheriff's radio system and give the county workers' merit pool a three-percent increase.
All of this was suggested by Executive Mike Sanders late last week. "We can do all that in this budget and still balance this budget. So I think for us, these are very good budgetary times, even in the teeth of a tough economy," he says.
Sanders says the cut in the tax levy, as envisioned, is based on higher sales tax intake. There will be hearings before the spending plan, or some variation on it, is adopted.