Tax Rates Set
Magistrates Ronnie Miller and Daniel Bragg during the discussion on tax rates for the county. Screen Capture Facebook-Metcalfe County Fiscal Court
By PJ Martin
Editor
The Herald-News
The Metcalfe County Fiscal Court held its regular meeting on Thursday, August 28th, with the following present: Judge/Executive Larry Wilson, Treasurer/Fiscal Court Clerk Page Edwards, Magistrates Harvey Hawking, Kevin Crain, Daniel Bragg, and Ronnie Miller.
Others present were Occupational Tax Administrator Lorrie Gilpin, Finance Officer Connie Taylor, Metcalfe County Sheriff Lonnie Hodges, Sheriff’s Office Manager Lynn Lunz, EMS Director Adam Bennett, Metcalfe County Jailer Randall Shive, Metcalfe County Public Library Director Kacey Warf, and Herald-News Reporter PJ Martin.
The long agenda was approved. Also, the minutes from the August 14th regular meeting and the minutes from the August 19th special-called meeting were both approved as written.
Next, a Resolution agreeing that Metcalfe County would accept the maintenance of US 68 Greensburg Road from KY 745 Mell Ridge Road to 729 in Green County (at the line) and the new bridge once the Kentucky Department of Highways is finished with project plan # 03-8706.2.
“They’ve already let out bids. They’ll probably start clearing some of the land this fall, with actual construction being next year,” said Judge Wilson, adding, “If we say no, I wouldn’t be surprised the state comes back and says yes.”
The motion to accept the road once completed was made by Crain, seconded by Bragg, and approved.
Metcalfe County Sheriff’s Office Manager Lynn Lunz presented the tax settlement, “Every year we have to come to you all with our settlement of last year’s taxes. It’s got your state, and all of your local just tells you what we collected and discounts and all of that, we just have to basically say, I brought this to you and approve it so we can collect taxes. Again, looks like the total collections were $4,787,682.92, and we’ve done about like we do every year. We collected around 97 – 98%.”
The tax settlement was approved.
Next, the court was presented with the tax rates for the Metcalfe County School District for acknowledgment. The real and personal property remained the same at 52.2 cents per $100 and on the 2026 motor vehicles and watercraft at 56.6 cents per $100 of assessed value.
The Metcalfe County Public Library Director, Kacey Warf, was on hand to answer any questions the magistrates might have about the library tax rates. The 2025 real property rate is 12.0 cents per $100, personal property is 17.66 cents per $100 assessed value, and the 2026 motor vehicle and watercraft rates are 3.31 cents per $100.
Both were acknowledged by the fiscal court.
The county tax rates were next, with the magistrates approving the compensating rate of 8.80 cents per $100 for real property (down from 9.00 cents in 2024), personal property was unchanged at 10.0 cents per $100, and the motor vehicle and watercraft tax for 2026 remains at 8.20 cents per $100.
The final tax rate was for the Ambulance District, with the real property compensating rate of 0.055 (down from 0.057 in 2024) and the motor vehicle and watercraft rate remaining the same at 0.030.
The October meeting was rescheduled due to being during the fall school break, when some of the court members would be absent. The date of that fiscal court meeting was selected to be Tuesday, October 14th, at 9 a.m.
The budget transfers, Interfund transfers, and claims were all approved in turn. The one comment was the increase in the monthly jail bill to $30,000.
In other business, Miller asked if the tile for the Copas Ridge Road could be purchased by the county and then reimbursed by the landowner? Judge Wilson told him that it could.
Edwards advised that she had given each county employee the new handbook.
With no other business, the meeting adjourned.
