The Perry County Fiscal Court voted to lower property taxes in the county during its regular meeting Tuesday morning.

In approving the county’s tax rate for 2008, the fiscal court approve a measure to slightly  lower property tax rates from 9.6 percent to 9.3 percent, which means the county will gather less revenue from those taxes, but Perry County Judge Executive Denny Ray Noble noted that the county is in good shape financially and lower taxes shouldn’t hurt the county’s ability to provide services.

“We carried over money last year and we feel like we’ll be fine,” Noble said.

The approval of lower taxes comes two weeks after the fiscal court approved a 50 cent pay raise for all county employees.

In other business, the court approved a measure that will earmark $50,000 in coal severance funds that will go towards replacing the septic system at Lost Creek Elementary. The motion to earmark the money was made by Magistrate Audrey Neace, who noted that the project was one her late husband and Magistrate Jimmy Darrell had wanted to complete before he was killed in a shooting incident in May.

“That was one of Jimmy Darrell’s projects and we feel like it needs to be done,” Judge Noble said following the meeting.

The court also approved several memorandums of agreement (MOA) between the county and the Governors’ Department for Local Government. The MOAs approved Tuesday included $100,000 for the new hospice construction, $250,000 for Senior Citizens-park improvements, $130,000 to be dived up for each of the county’s 13 volunteer fire departments and $150,000 for an adventure tourism initiative.

The court also approved the appointment of Eugene Lee Hillman, Jr. as Perry County Treasurer. Current Treasurer Tonya Delph, who will serve her last day Friday, will step down from the office to accept another job.

The court also accepted the resignation of Fitz Steel from the Kentucky River Regional Jail board of directors. Steel, who is set to be sworn in as state representative, is to be replaced by Robert Terry, who served on the jail board previously.

Finally, the court approved a motion to raise the salary of each Perry County magistrate effective in 2011. Magistrate Earl Brashear, who commented  that magistartes are constantly working and deserve a raise, stressed that he is not necessarily giving himself or the other magistrates a raise as the increase in salary will not go into effect until after the next election in 2010, meaning the raise will go to whomever wins that contest. Brashear proposed a raise of $10,000 annually.