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• Pierce County raises property tax levy
• Pepin County man's death ruled suicide

By Judy Wiff, Regional Editor

ELLSWORTH - After a little tweaking Tuesday morning, the Pierce County Board adopted its 2007 budget, raising the county's property tax levy to the state-limited cap of $12,875,705.

That total includes almost $12.3 million for general operations, $400,000 for county library and $200,000 for county aid for bridges. The county has no debt so no money was budgeted for debt service.

Each county's property tax cap is set by the Wisconsin Department of Revenue based on the value of new construction. In theory, that system should mean owners of existing property will see no increase in the property tax they pay for county government.

The budget adds no new personnel in 2007 and includes about $406,000 to cover the Human Service Department's 2005 deficit. It does not include money to cover a projected 2006 deficit of about $500,000 for that department.

The budget affects the county's three largest departments in these ways:

* The Sheriff's Department budget was frozen. The department will get the same $4.7 million tax levy support it got this year.

* The Highway Department got a 2.9 percent increase, bringing its share of the levy to nearly $3 million.

* The Human Services Department will get a 3.49 percent increase in property tax levy money.

That means the agency will get about $1.7 million from the property tax to help fund a 2007 budget of about $10 million.

A series of proposed budget amendments were presented Tuesday, but only two were adopted.

Supervisors voted to transfer $40,000 from the contingency fund to Human Services to keep a part-time nurse job in the Community Support Program.

Earlier action had cut $109,000 from the program, which serves persistently mentally ill persons. The cut meant eliminating the clinical coordinator position, cutting the part-time nurse job and reducing psychiatrist hours.

Get more on this story in this week's print editions of the River Falls Journal and the Pierce County Herald.

Judy Wiff is the Regional Editor for the RiverTown Newspaper Group and is based in River Falls. She can be contacted at 715.426.1049 or regional@rivertowns.net

Pepin County authorities have ruled the death of a Town of Albany man a suicide.

According to the Pepin County Sheriff's Department, the gunshot wounds suffered by the victim were self-inflicted. The incident took place at around 8:15 p.m. Wednesday.

Pepin County authorities were assisted in their investigation by the Wisconsin Department of Justice's Division of Criminal Investigation.