WISE — Wise County’s 2022-23 budget is now in force.
With all but Supervisor Fred Luntsford Jr. present in person or electronically, the Board of Supervisors approved both the $81.6 million school budget and $60.99 million county budget Friday, just in time for the first day of the new fiscal year.
County residents will see no changes to real estate and personal property tax rates: $0.69 per $100 assessed value for real estate and $1.65 per $100 of 100% assessed NADA loan value, respectively.
The county will fund $11.9 million of the school system’s budget.
While no mention was made of the topic during the six-minute recessed meeting, County Administrator Mike Hatfield and Board Vice Chair John Schoolcraft confirmed after the meeting that Appalachia Fire and Rescue would be able to pick up its full $70,000 allocation as soon as that day.
Schoolcraft said the early release of all funds came from a consensus of board members during a final budget workshop Thursday.
The Appalachia department had warned county and town officials a week ago that it would have to lay off some of the agency’s 12 paid personnel because of slowed Medicaid-Medicare billing collections for ambulance transports.
Department Assistant Chief Travis Anderson on Tuesday said there would be no layoffs or service cuts after discussions with unnamed supervisors.
Earlier this week, Hatfield said that if the supervisors decided to increase funding for Appalachia Fire and Rescue, they would most likely wait until after the budget passed to make a budget amendment instead of starting the budget public hearing and approval process over again.
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