Douglas County Commissioners set the 2020 county budget for publication during their July 17 meeting.

They recommended a .379 mill levy increase, which raises the mill levy from 46.015 to 46.394. The owner of a $185,000 home will pay the county about $8 more in property taxes.

The 2020 budget includes additional funding for:

• Appraiser’s Office for one full-time employee - $66,000
• Emergency Services Council for additional rent and utility assistance - $20,000
• JAAA to restore previous funding cut - $10,000
• Lawrence-Douglas County Housing Authority to partially fund case worker and additional housing - $75,000
• Trinity In-Home Care for operational support for non-medical, in-home assistance - $30,000
• Baldwin City Chamber of Commerce - $10,000
• City of Eudora EMS & Fire to partially fund new response vehicle - $27,121
• Lawrence Community Shelter supplemental funding - $181,000
• Criminal Justice Services to establish drug court - $271,444
• District Attorney for two full-time employees for drug court - $159,280
• District Attorney for a part-time investigator - $33,715
• District Court operations for juvenile panel pay increase - $68,400
• First Responders Rapid Intervention Team for Scott Air Packs - $58,000
• First Responders Rapid Intervention Team for new vehicle - $46,000
• Heritage Conservation to help restore previous funding cut - $100,000.
• Sheriff’s Office for one full-time evidence technician at Douglas County Correctional Facility - $65,139
• Sheriff’s Office operations - $203,852
• Lawrence-Douglas County Fire and Medical capital improvement project - $111,333

The total recommended budget for 2020 is $96 million.

The budget will be adopted during an Aug. 14 public hearing that will be held as part of the County Commission's 5:30 p.m. business meeting. To view the proposed budget and full agenda: http://dgcoks.org/agenda814.

Audio recordings of the budget hearings and deliberations are available on our website: http://dgcoks.org/reports.