The Cole County Commission will vote to set the county's tax levy Aug. 30.
Last year, the county rolled back the general fund levy to 7.5 cents per $100 assessed valuation and kept the public works/road and bridge levy at an even 27 cents per $100 assessed valuation.
It was noted this year the county saw a 2.5 percent increase in assessed valuation.
Since 2009, commissioners have been reducing the general fund rate because they promised a 60 percent rollback in tax collections in 2008 when voters approved a sales tax to pay for ambulance service operations.
The general fund levy was at 33 cents in 2008.
The public works levy hasn't been raised since 2001.
Last year, Western District Commissioner Kris Scheperle voted against keeping the public works levy at the same level, saying increasing the levy would allow the county to keep up with the rise in costs to repair and maintain county roads, something he reiterated again at Tuesday's commission meeting.
"We can't keep adding road miles and keep up the maintenance with the same levy amount," Scheperle said.
Eastern District Commissioner Jeff Hoelscher indicated he would not be in favor of raising the levy.
In other commission business, commissioners gave public works officials approval to start planning for a stormwater project in the area of Meadowbrook Estates and Courtyard Subdivision.
Recent heavy rains caused flooding in several parts of the area, and public works officials believe getting a jump on design work will help get construction started faster. The design work is estimated to cost $125,000, and some of the money for that will be taken from other areas of the public works budget. The project is estimated to have a total cost of $1.5 million and would include stormwater repairs, curb and gutter work, as well as street and pavement work. The majority of the costs would be covered by the half-cent improvement sales tax, which voters renewed for another five years in April and would kick in at the start of 2017. Work on the project would not begin until 2018.
Also at Tuesday's meeting:
Commissioners approved a memorandum of understanding with Russellville for the county Health Department to do environmental inspections in their city. This would be for code/nuisance violations.
John Smith with Paramedics Plus LLC, who the commission has engaged as a consultant to work on system enhancements to the operations of the ambulance service, told commissioners he has met with county fire district chiefs, as well as the Jefferson City fire and police departments about various issues and will meet this week with officials from Capital Region Medical Center and St. Mary's Hospital on ways to improve their service.
Before the commission began work, they observed a moment of silence for former County Auditor Jim LePage, who died over the weekend. LePage was involved in county government for 27 years.