The Wright County Board of Commissioners Approved the preliminary 2020 property tax levy in the amount of $78,587,512.

That represents a 6.7% increase over the 2019 levy of $73,652,160.

The proposed 2020 budget is $160,949,532 up from $147,219,099 in 2019.

The levy supported portion of the budget saw increases in every line item. It includes $49.135,148 for the general fund ($46,582,998 in 2019) $9,338,916 for the road and bridge fund ($8,877,122), $11,864,351 for human services ($11,691,477), $4,314,998 for capital projects ($2,241,453) and $10,029,701 in debt service ($9,865,885).

Commissioner Michael Potter said it was much better than last year’s increase when the county had to make up for years without a levy hike, plus factor in construction of a new Government Center. In a split vote last year, the board approved a levy increase over 17%.

“We should all take pride in the fact that it’s not last year’s number,” said Potter. “That was an anomaly that you don’t want to visit again. This one is more reflective of factoring in the growth of the county.”

Commissioner Christine Husom agreed.

“We made the correction last year and we can move forward with more reasonable numbers in the future,” she said.

Commissioner Mark Daleiden said county growth should cover the increased levy.

“As long as your house didn’t have an increase in value, you really shouldn’t see much of a change in the county property taxes,” he said.

Board Chair Darek Vetsch said last year’s correction should lead to better numbers in the future.

“This is a great step forward to levy stabilization and creating more predictability,” he said. “I do believe that we went into this budget process without trying to create a bottleneck for years to come.”