Businesses in Boyle County made a lot more money than anticipated during fiscal year 2018-19, and the county government’s budget benefited significantly as a result.

Boyle County Fiscal Court originally budgeted to collect $625,000 in net profits taxes — which are collected from businesses on the profits they produce — during the year. Treasurer Mary Conley projected the county would actually get $699,000, but even that revised figure turned out to be too low: The actual revenue wound up at $816,700, Conley reported this week. That’s $191,700 more than the budget and $117,700 more than Conley’s projection.

“That kind of saved us from eating into our surplus,” as the county has been doing regularly for several years, Conley told county magistrates.

The county’s general fund balance has been dropping by around $200,000 annually for some time now, Conley has reported previously. But thanks to the net profits tax gains, “we only ate into our surplus this year at $57,800.”

A “categorical report” is being compiled for the fiscal court to further break down how much in net profits tax was paid by different types of businesses, Conley said.

Property tax rate

During the same meeting, Judge-Executive Howard Hunt provided magistrates copies of information about property tax rates in every county in Kentucky. Hunt said he was giving the data out as a “point of information” ahead of discussions this fall over setting the county’s property tax rate.

The data shows Boyle has one of the lowest fiscal court property tax rates in the state. Boyle’s rate is 6.7 cents per $100 of assessed value. There are three other counties with that same rate — Casey, Grayson and Russell — and eight with lower rates: Clinton (6.5), Scott (6.3), Laurel (6.0), Morgan (6.0), Hancock (5.6), Pulaski (5.1), Cumberland (4.5) and Carroll (3.2). The other 108 Kentucky counties all have higher property tax rate, mostly between 7 and 18 cents per $100 of value. Magoffin County Fiscal Court charges the most at 48.5 cents per $100 of value.

Boyle remains in the bottom quarter of Kentucky counties when all the different county government property taxes are considered together, including property taxes for public libraries, ambulance services, fire protection districts, extension services and health departments, among others.

Boyle County’s countywide property tax rate (not including city or school district rates) was 24.055 cents per $100 of value in 2018. There were 27 counties with lower total rates and 92 counties with higher total rates.

Asked whether presenting the information meant Boyle County would be considering a property tax increase in 2019, Hunt responded, “the possibility is never off the table.”