By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
Barton County has always, as part of its budget, put money aside in an economic development line item. During Tuesday's commission meeting, County Counselor Patrick Hoffman explained why that line item is important before the board of commissioners voted to change how it will fund economic development moving forward.
"The reason counties fund economic development is, when the county has the opportunity to increase the tax base, that eventually comes back in the form of taxes to the county," Hoffman said. "If you're not growing your tax base, you have to tax the same people more and more every year."
In recent years, the county moved from a project-based formula to fund Great Bend Economic Development to providing the organization $250,000 a year as a directly-funded partner agency. Commissioner Duane Reif said a change on Jan. 1 to move back to project-based funding for any economic development projects in the county is more transparent.
"I think Economic Development did an excellent job, but I feel like, as a commissioner, we try to be very transparent on how we spend our money," he said. "With that amount of dollars we're responsible for as far as the taxpayer's money, this will be a better way to answer to our taxpayers."
Barton County set aside $250,000 for economic development in 2025. All projects will now go before the board of commissioners before receiving funding.