The Dane County Board failed to even budge the county executive's biggest tax levy increase in modern memory Monday night.

That's disappointing.

The county's tax levy will jump 7.9 percent.

That's a big bad number that hasn't changed since Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk introduced her county budget request more than a month ago.

The county's overall levy will total $128.6 million next year. The operating budget will increase to $460.4 million.

For the owner of an average home in Madison assessed at $245,000, the county's portion of your property tax bill will rise to $626.

Some of the more conservative board supervisors at least offered a few ideas for saving money:

• Eliminating as many as 30 vacant jobs.

• Continuing to charge Dane County jail inmates more for snacks and phone calls.

• Cutting about $1.5 million for land purchases in 2010 after years of aggressive land buying for conservation.

You'd think the full County Board could find a little room for agreement among some of these or other reasonable ideas to ease the tax burden.

Instead, the board's liberal majority rejected every budget amendment proposed Monday night, sticking with Falk's spending requests almost to the dime.

To be sure, this was an incredibly difficult budget year. County sales tax revenue plunged because of the economy. State leaders cut millions in county aid. The county reserve fund had dried up.

But average Dane County residents who pay the bills for county government have been hurting, too.

More Dane County workers have lost their jobs or faced furloughs. Some have lost their homes.

Dane County families deserved more respect than such a giant tax hike.

The budget burden isn't going away. And it deserves to be one of the top issue in the spring County Board elections.

Login to post your comment. If you don't have an account, you may register for one.