CLEVELAND — During a special-called meeting at town hall on Friday, the Cleveland Board of Commissioners officially approved the budget for the upcoming fiscal year. 

The latest approved budget keeps Cleveland’s current property tax rate of $0.30 per $100 valuation intact. 

Like other municipalities in Rowan County, Cleveland was subject to a property value reassessment earlier this year. However, unlike the other municipalities in Rowan County, Cleveland did not see a significant increase in property values.

The previous assessed value for all Cleveland property was $214,300,223. The total property value was determined to be $228,747,719 after the reassessment.  

As a result, to maintain a revenue-neutral rate, which is the property tax rate that returns the same revenue as the year before, Cleveland would have only had to lower the tax rate by a fraction of a cent. 

The revenue-neutral rate would be approximately $0.2950 per $100 valuation. Property tax bills will remain relatively unchanged at the adopted rate.

The budget that the commissioners approved includes an estimated $688,290 in property taxes and an estimated $275,000 in sales tax. The most significant expenses on the budget are for the police department and maintenance (public works), respectively. 

The commissioners approved $691,442 for the Cleveland Police Department and $336,431 for the public works department.  As is common in municipal budgets, salaries for the police department made up the bulk of the budget with $338,690. Similarly, the maintenance department’s greatest expense was salaries at $198,435.