Board members had believed they were approving an almost $102 million budget with a 2.5 percent increase in the tax levy, but because of a mix up between the board and the treasurer’s office, the increase was 10 times higher.

County Board Chairman Donald Lindberg, R-Worcester, said he and the board are ultimately responsible for the higher-than-anticipated tax bills, although he admits he did not realize what he was voting for.

``If we’d known we were dealing with an increase like that, we would have kept cutting until we got down to the 2.5 percent we thought we had,’’ Lindberg said.

According to Lindberg, the miscalculation stemmed from not accounting for tax-exempt properties when estimating the tax levy. By not factoring in the tax-exempt properties, the increase in the levy appeared to be much smaller than it actually is.

The new budget calls for a tax levy of $13.9 million, up approximately 22 percent or $2.5 million from 2006.

The county operated under a new budget review process this year, with department budgets scrutinized by the Administration Committee before being reviewed by the full board. Administration Committee member Rep. Stephen Fournier, R-Milford, said last Thursday afternoon that he had no idea the 2007 budget would call for a double-digit tax increase.

``We were never told that by the Treasurer’s Office and I don’t believe any board member realized what we were voting for,’’ he said.

Otsego County treasurer Myrna Thayne said she never misled board members, pointing to ``Exhibit B’’ in her 2007 tentative budget package, which states that the tax levy will increase by $2,508,047.

``It’s right there in black-and-white,’’ she said. ``I don’t see how anyone can say they were misled.’’

But also in this document are the sentences: ``The 2007 budget property tax levy increase is 2.4977 percent from the prior year. This is less than the average property-tax levy increase for the years 2001-2005, which was 3.3 percent, which is on file with the Office of the State Comptroller...’’

Board members came to believe this meant the property-tax levy in the county would rise an average of 2.5 percent, but that was not the case.

Rep. James Powers, R-Butternuts, another member of the Administration Committee, said he worried that the 2007 budget was too good to be true.

``I thought there was something wrong, because they kept adding things to the budget, saying we’d have no trouble paying for them because of the Medicaid cap, or the increase in sales tax,’’ he said.

``But I knew it was going to cost us too much,’’ said Powers, who voted against the budget.

Ronald Feldstein, D-Otego, Administration Committee chairman, said he, too, had no idea he was voting to raise the property-tax levy by more than 20 percent.

``It seemed like a good budget, because it allowed us to do a lot of things we needed to do,’’ he said. The board just did not have an accurate picture of what it would cost, he said.

How much tax bills increase will depend on what town the property is located in. In Hartwick, taxpayers are expected to see a jump of almost 38 percent, but in Plainfield, the increase is estimated to be a little over 8 percent.

The variation between the towns is due to each municipality’s equalization rate. The equalization rate is set by the state and is a measure of each municipality’s level of assessment.

It is used to fairly apportion or divide taxes between the different towns within a county or school district. Generally, those towns with lower equalization rates will see a higher increase.