The regional district has adopted a budget which will hike taxes by about 9 percent this year.
Each area of the regional district will be affected differently, but the amount of increased tax to be paid by each village, city and unincorporated area won't be ready until next week, said interim administrator Tanalee Hesse.
The main reason for the increase is that the board has budgeted for a new staff position. That decision pushed the amount set aside for salaries to $300,000 for this year, compared to the $196,000 spent in 2006.
The board has also decided to hire someone to do a forensic audit of the regional district's books, Ms Hesse said. In order to do that, the board increased the amount under "audit and legal" to $100,000 for this year. Last year, the regional district spent $13,000 on audit and legal items.
The tax increase could have been even higher, Ms Hesse said, but directors wanted to keep it under 10 percent. To keep it at this level, they pumped about $209,000 from reserves into this year's budget.