“We’re the bearer of bad news because we send out (tax bills),” said Don Navinsky, Leavenworth County Commis-sioner. “We catch the brunt of everyone’s anger.”

However, complaints could dwindle some this year.

In a unanimous decision, the Leavenworth County Commission approved the 2003 final budget Monday that calls for a mill levy decrease of 1.1 mills.

The mill levy will drop from 41.138 to 40.163 mills.

“I think it’s a solid budget that will fund the county but yet doesn’t have a lot of frills built in,” said Steve Wagner, Leavenworth County financial adviser.

A mill is $1 per $1,000 of assessed property valuation.

This year’s budget calls for total expenditures of more than $35.7 million.

Some of the areas with the highest budgets in 2003 are:

The general fund. More than $11 million has been budgeted making it the largest fund in 2003.

Road and bridge fund. Approximately $5 million has been budgeted for road and highway work in 2003.

Employee benefits. Approximately $3.5 million was budgeted for next year.

The county was able to lower the mill levy slightly because each department head had submitted budgets with no more than a 1.6- percent increase.

“We’ve set realistic goals if the departments are managed well,” Wagner said.

The mill levy was also lowered because of an 8 percent increase in property valuation.

The increase in property valuation gives the county approximately $22,500 more per mill, county officials said.

However, it was the increase in valuation that Lansing resident John Mustard complained about during the county budget hearing.

The formula to figure property valuation needs to be reformatted, he said.

County Commission chairman Bob Adams said the commission has tried to lower taxes when they could.

“This is a process we don’t take lightly,” Adams said. “I don’t think we’ve foolishly raised taxes in the past.”