By Max Steigauf / Assistant News Director

The Stearns County Board of Commissioners have approved the county’s preliminary budget for 2022.

The proposed budget has a spending total of $177 million. The budget has an increase of spending of 8.43% or $13 million. The county is relying on a new property tax levy to pay for $87 million of the the new budget.

This means property taxes will go up on average by 6.2% for Stearns county homeowners in 2022.

Stearns county residents can give their input on the proposed budget by emailing budget@co.stearns.mn.us or by by attending the Truth-in-Taxation presentation and public hearing on November 30th.