County mulls levy

By Dean Shipley

Staff Writer

Will the cost be worth the potential outcome?

Apparently not.

Commissioners initially approved Monday the Department of Disabilities (DD) request to place a one-mill renewal levy on the May 7 ballot. DD superintendent Jim Canney requested the renewal of a levy to be placed on the May 2013 ballot. As a renewal levy, not a replacement levy, it will generate $805,000. Canney said he preferred putting on a renewal, not a replacement, which would generate an additional $113,902.

“It’s not worth the gamble,” Canney said.

At the renewal level, Canney said those dollars fund one-third of the DD’s annual budget of $5 million per year.

The one-mill levy is part of a three-levy package which funds the DD. It’s a total of four mills which are collected at three mills Canney said.

Canney said this particular levy was first approved by voters in 1988 and has been passed, in either renewal or replacement in ’93, ’98, 2003, and 2008.

However, following the discussion, the commissioners looked into the cost of a special election. To put a special election on the ballot will cost $41,000 according to the Board of Elections.

Canney told The Madison Press Monday afternoon it was decided to wait until November and NOT put it on a May ballot.

In other business, the commissioners also approved a contract between Job and Family Services and Ryan Ladd for his services, at $15 per hour, to work with a teen.

“To mentor him,” said Lori Dodge-Dorsey, director.

She said even with a spending cap on the contract of $5,000, it will cost much less if the department has to administer counseling.

The motion was approved but commissioner Paul Gross would like to see the department conduct a “mid-term evaluation.”

The commissioners also discussed with the treasurer, auditor and prosecutor the issue of conveyance fees on real estate transactions. The county’s current conveyance fee is two dollars per thousand dollars of value for a real estate transaction.

The commissioners also had a conversation with a man whose fence was damaged by plowed snow — as evidenced by photos he brought in. But he expressed concern about his apparent rude treatment by county engineer David Brand during a conversation following the complaint. The commissioners apologized to the man, who requested to remain unnamed, and said as public servants they should take a more civil tone when people call in.