Brown County Commissioners Court members held public hearings Wednesday on the county’s proposed $34.6 million budget and proposed tax rate of .51609 per $100 valuation.

Commissioners will vote on adopting the budget and tax rate on Sept. 8, Brown County Judge Tom Munson said.

The proposed budget is 4.8 percent higher than the 2025-’26 budget, Munson said.

Commenting on what’s driving the increase, Munson said, “we have a pretty decent-size contingency built in there that we that we don’t always have. It’s about $860,000. It’s nice to have that pad that’s not unreasonable, given the size of the budget in general.

“It gives us some room to handle things that we don’t foresee right now. I think that’s responsible as it relates to the county.”

The proposed tax rate is an increase from the 2025-’26 rate of $.49482.

“That tax rate affects different people in different ways,” Munson said. “It depends on what happened to the valuation of your property, what exemptions are in place, so it gets pretty complex as to how that impacts every person.”

In other business, commissioners:

• Approved salary increases for elected officials following a public hearing. With the exception of the sheriff and justices of the peace, elected officials will receive a 5 percent increase. The sheriff will receive a 3 percent increase. Justices of the peace will receive a 17.1 percent increase, which brings them level with all other elected officials other than constables, Munson announced.

• Approved a road use agreement and $500,000 bond between the county and Grand Prix Pipeline.

• Approved the purchase of a Caterpillar motor grader for Precinct 2. The county will receive a $385000 trade-in allowance, leaving a total purchase price of $267,779.