Budget: Done.

Without much fanfare, the county council yesterday passed the fiscal year 2007 budget, devoting $1.2 billion in taxpayer money to all sorts of good, meaningful things.

Included in the budget is a modest property tax cut that will reduce the rate from $1.044 per $100 of a home’s assessed value to $1.014, which translates to a savings of about $135 a year for someone living in a $450,000 home (median price in HoCo).

However, Council Member Charles Feaga, R-District 5, said the cut is not deep enough.

He had proposed lowering the county’s cap on taxable property value from 5 percent to 4 percent in March. That would limit increases in property taxes as the housing market values rise.

Ah, Feaga. So, the cut that was passed isn’t deep enough? I thought it was pretty clear that it takes at least seven years (possibly twelve) for a homeowner to "break even" under Feaga’s proposal as compared to Robey's. Yet how many of us really believe our tax rate won't change again before then? I don't. What's more, if you move, you lose out on the benefit of the tax assesment cap anyway.

Does this mean he’s admitting he didn’t really support his own, not-deep-enough cut either? Or is he just criticizing Robey’s plan because, well, that’s what he does?