Ward County property owners would see a tax increase under a 2024 preliminary county budget approved by the county commission Wednesday.

The owner of an average home assessed at $225,000 would see a $17.72 increase, assuming no change in home valuation from last year. The increase would be $26.53 on the average quarter of farmland, which includes the change in valuation.

The commission will hold a public hearing on the preliminary budget Sept. 19 at 7 p.m. in the Ward County Administration Building and could make changes prior to final budget adoption.

The commission met Tuesday to look for ways to trim the original $61.66 million spending plan, which reflected almost a 15% increase in property-tax dollars.

The revised budget of $61.36 million reduces the property tax total to $22 million, which remains about $1.6 million higher than the 2023 budget. The total includes outside agencies, from the State Fair to senior citizens and various water boards.

Commissioners eliminated two mills, or about $742,000, from the 10-mill highway levy but expect to recover that money from sales tax dollars.

The commission voted to pay off a 2017 tax bond this year and make the last payment on a 2020 tax bond next year, which completes costs associated with jail and administration building construction using a half percent sales tax approved by voters.

The county plans to put accumulated sales tax dollars toward closing out the 2017 bond early. That allowed the commission to remove about $3.5 million in sales tax bond payments from the 2024 preliminary budget, leaving only payment on the 2020 bond of $1.88 million.

Commission Chairman John Fjeldahl noted that early payment will result in significant savings in interest costs while allowing more money for highways. In 2020, voters approved extending the sales tax for highways.

Ward County’s sales tax raises about $7.3 million annually, according to the county auditor’s office

The commission also largely eliminated a $250,000 contingency fund after concluding it duplicates $1.2 million available in reserve.

“It still stands that there should not be these contingency funds out there,” Commissioner Shelly Weppler said. “That’s what the reserve is for.”

The commission is keeping $25,000 in the budget for contingency while the auditor’s office investigates whether the fund needs to remain open for accounting purposes.

The budget also was reduced by $100,000 in miscellaneous facilities expenses.

Remaining in the budget is a 6% salary increase for employees. It includes 3.5% in salary schedule step increases and 2.5% in cost-of-living increases.