County board approves budget for publication

A proposed 2023 budget that lowers the tax rate by 3.576 mills was approved for publication by the Cloud County board of commissioners during its regular meeting on Monday.
If approved, the budget calls for a tax rate of 63.899 mills. That is down from the actual rate for 2022 of 67.475 mills. The tax rate for the 2021 budget was 67.832 mills.
A public hearing for the proposed budget is scheduled for September 12 at 9 a.m. in the commission meeting room.
The proposed budget calls for total expenditures of $17,135,513. The actual expenditures for 2022 were $16,736,832.
The assessed valuation for the county increased from $120,252,981 to $126,958,403.
In other action taken during the meeting, the board approved the signing of an interlocal agreement with Republic County for the services of Toby Marco as the appraiser for both counties.
Marco, who began his position as appraiser on Monday, replaces Barry Porter, who retired after 26 years as the appraiser for Cloud County.
A graduate of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln with a bachelor of science degree in construction management, Marco had been working as a commercial and residential field appraiser in Saline County.
The board also approved appointing Tonya Sulanka as the director of the Cloud County Health Department, effective July 25, at a salary of $55,000.
Sulanka, who had served as the officer manager for the health department, was appointed the interim director after Brandi Bray resigned to take a different position.
Bray had been the health department director since 2017.