The Portage County Finance Committee is continuing to work on the county's 2001 budget.
As it stands now, county property owners could pay $5.33 per $1,000 of equalized value, compared to the $5.21 per $1,000 they paid in property taxes to the county treasurer in 2000. The county's state-mandated property tax cap is $5.68 in 2001, giving the county a 35-cent cushion. In 2000, the property tax rate was 52 cents under the $5.73 tax cap.
Finance Committee members still have to approve the budget, before forwarding their recommendations to the County Board of Supervisors in November.
The Finance Committee reviewed funding requests from noncounty agencies when it met Wednesday, Oct. 25. The committee voted to allocate $5,000 to the Amherst Fair, $5,000 to the Rosholt Fair, $5,000 to CAP Services, $50,000 to the Portage County Business Council, $6,000 to the Portage County Historical Society and $15,000 to the Stevens Point Area Visitors and Convention Bureau. CAP got a $500 increase and the Portage County Historical Society got a one-time $1,000 increase from their normal $5,000 allocation.
Right From the Start Programs, a noncounty agency, asked for $164,603, so it could expand the services offered by its Family Resources Centers and Healthy Families programs. The Family Resources Centers has centers in Stevens Point, Junction City, Amherst and Almond/Bancroft, and wants to expand hours in Almond/Bancroft and open a center in the Rosholt area.
Healthy Families utilizes paid "family visitors" to conduct in-home visits to first-time families, but the program is now full. The families are identified as having "stressors" in their lives that could lead to child abuse and neglect. The program is designed to help children and prevent more costly problems from happening in the future.
The Finance Committee recommended allocating $92,000 to Right From the Start Programs, including $55,000 from money slated to go into the county Health and Human Services Department budget.