By county estimates, the 2.2 mill rate hike would translate to a tax increase of about $8 on a $100,000 home occupied as a primary residence.
District 2 Council member Wayne McCall cast the dissenting vote.
Even with the proposed budget increase compared with the current fiscal year, the budget would eliminate a program of retired employee benefits and shift 2.5 mills of revenue, about $1.3 million, from the county's debt service fund. Left intact is $800,000 earmarked for an increase in salaries in the Oconee County Sheriff's Office.
Those cuts and shifts reduced the deficit of $2.1 million in Moulder's first budget proposal option to the $1.1 million deficit option council members agreed upon Tuesday. The $2.1 million deficit would have required a 4.1 mill tax rate hike to balance.
"We've held the line as long as we can, it is what it is," said Council Chairman Paul Cain, before agreeing that a tax hike was necessary.
Councilman Joel Thrift said raising taxes was the last thing the council would want to consider, but there was no avoiding the increasing cost of government services.
"We know going forward that there will be some things that will cost," he said.
He said the county's industrial parks, the county's costs in the estimated $5 million price tag of a Tri-County Technical College Oconee campus and the county's $6.75 million share of a renovation program for the Tri-County Tech main campus in Pendleton.
Thrift two years ago suggested a series of gradual tax hikes lest the county face critical shortfalls that would mean a sharp hike on any given year. He recounted that Tuesday, reiterating that gradual hikes would "hurt people less than a lump sum."
The county has not raised taxes in four years, though for the last two years the County Council has rejected millage decreases proposed by County Auditor Ken Nix.
The elimination of the retired employee benefit plan, Moulder told council members, would not affect county employees only a short time away from retirement, but would be cut off at a number of years in service not yet determined.
The benefit pays health insurance costs of retired employees not yet 65 years old and after age 65 pays them $158 per month to pay for a Medicare supplement policy.
"The private sector is doing away with this kind of thing," Moulder said. "They just can't afford it. And the public sector really can't either."
Oconee County is one of perhaps three counties in the state that have such a program, Moulder said.
The county administrator cautioned council members that shifting the 2.5 mills from the county's debt service would be a damper on any bond issues in the coming year. Any bond issues, he said, would require a further tax increase.
The proposed budget included no capital projects funding for the county's estimated $12 million project to extend sewer service to Interstate 85 Exits 1, 2 and 4 to foster economic development.
That, county officials said, will likely be funded by special source revenue bonds paid off by fee-in-lieu-of-taxes revenue. State law prohibits the use of general fund revenue for sewer projects.
Moulder warned council members again, however, that replacing the fee-in-lieu revenue in general budget could also require a tax increase.
The council plans to take up the final proposed budget April 14.