Within three weeks the Rappahannock County Board of Supervisors will meet to approve their budget and possibly a tax increase.

But supervisors are still arguing over whether they'll raise the real estate tax from $.59 to $.60.

On the one hand, Supervisor Bryant Lee said that supervisors could avoid the tax increase if they delayed some of Rappahannock's construction projects.

"I think it would be nice to have one year where we had no increase," Bryant said at a public hearing Monday night on the proposed fiscal year 2008 budget and tax rate.

On the other hand, other board members questioned how much such a move would actually save taxpayers, since the county would still pay thousands in rent.

"One of the problems is that the federal government has cut back funds to Rappahannock County," Supervisor Roger Welch said. "The state government has drastically cut their funds, and we don't have any more money to work with."

The one -cent increase would raise about $165,000. If approved, those new funds would go toward the county's General Fund and upgrades to the radio system.

The public hearing drew only one commentator, Tom Junk of Sperryville, who said that he approved of the board action overall, but urged supervisors to consider the needy when arguing over the tax increase.

"Theres a goodly number of people not attending these meetings that are having a hard time with any increase at all, with fuel increases and things like that," Junk said.

The budget comes to little more than $22 million, about $2 million more than last year, County Administrator John McCarthy said. Much of the $2 million increase comes from one-time capital projects, including: