BEATRICE – Gage County Supervisors conduct a public hearing Wednesday morning on the county’s 2019-2020 budget.

The public hearing, set for 9:30 a.m., is part of the board’s regular meeting schedule. The board is also scheduled to approve tax levy authority for townships, rural fire districts, the Gage County Historical Society and Gage County Agricultural Society.

Passage of the budget will be considered following the hearing. The county is now at it’s 50-cent tax rate limit…..a step required under a new law that will allow the county to enact a half-cent sales tax to pay a huge federal jury award in the “Beatrice Six” ruling. The board has not yet voted to institute the sales tax. That will require five affirmative votes, from the seven-member body.

A U.S. District Court jury awarded over $28 million to six defendants the state ruled were wrongfully convicted, in a Beatrice rape and murder, in 1985.