Buttars believes 2016 budget will serve the citizens well, while Erickson opposed to tax increase amount

It took some time and a lot of adjustments but the Cache County Council has passed a 2016 budget that County Executive Craig Buttars believes will serve the citizens well.

It calls for a property tax of approximately five percent which he says means about $10 a year on a home valued at $200,000.

“We do still have a few needs in our road department that we’ll probably revisit next year,” says Buttars. “Those are the main concerns that we have, road maintenance and things like that.”

The budget was adopted on a five to two vote with two council members voting against it – Val Potter and David Erickson. Potter said he voted “no” because he feels that more budget cuts should have been made.

There were a lot of aspects about the 2016 budget adopted by the Cache County Council last week that council member David Erickson really liked. But Erickson, who is the newest council member, says the budget was just too big for him to support.

“I was hoping that we would dig just a little deeper in each department,” says Erickson, “come back with a little bit deeper cuts, with a willingness to cut from the different departments so the tax increase wouldn’t be so big.

“I was hoping to get that at least down to a two-and-a-half or a three percent tax increase maybe rather than the five that was approved.”

Erickson was picked to serve the last two years of Craig Buttars’ term when Buttars ran for and eventually became the county executive. Now after serving on the council for one year he has to decide soon whether or not to run for a four-year term.

Buttars is completing his first full year in the county executive’s office.

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