Last week, the Gloucester County Board of Supervisors adopted a county budget for fiscal year 2017 with a 4-3 vote that added a penny and a half to property owners’ real estate tax rates and provided 4 percent raises for county employees.

Board chairman John Meyer Jr. took some time Tuesday morning to explain the board’s rationale for its decision and also why he changed his mind at the last minute, making his vote the swing vote in deciding on a lower tax rate.

During the board’s April 18 budget work session, Meyer said he thought he had a feel for what the majority of the board wanted when he proposed a two-cent increase on the real estate tax rate, which could have provided an additional $200,000 of local funding to potentially go to the school system. The board voted 4-3 that night for county staff to prepare a resolution with those numbers for final approval the following night.

That night, he said he thought he had enough members of the board that would vote ...