Commission Cuts Several Budgets

The Jasper County Commissioners last Thursday cut nearly $200,000 from line items in the general fund and moved the funds to “contingency” in an attempt to keep from having a shortfall in the 2006 budget.

The commissioners set the tax levy before approving the budget, a process backwards from how things have been done in previous years. Typically, the budget is set, and the taxes are set to generate enough money to fund the budget.
This year, department heads and constitutional offices had submitted budget requests and the interim county manager had worked on the budget, but the tax levy was approved some time before the budget was set.

Apparently, because of concerns about coming up short, the commissioners chose to move several items to contingency.

What the commissioners did was take several of the items in “other appropriations” and cut them by 20 percent. County manager Greg Williams said the money was not taken out of the budget, just moved to contingency.

Items cut by 20 percent were Jasper Memorial Hospital, the Putnam/Jasper Retardation Center, the Jasper County Library, the Development Authority of Jasper County, and Family Connection. The Jasper County Health Department was cut by $17,000, a 22.67 percent cut. And, the commissioners completely cut the funding of the water department, a $34,500 cut.

In addition, items moved to contingency were $10,000 from animal control and $6,000 from Extension Service. Several line items saw increases as well. The code enforcement officer will see a salary increase, county maintenance will see a salary increase and tax commissioner clerk line item sees a salary increase.

The meeting was advertised under the heading “County Budget” in the October 27 Monticello News, and was posted as such on the Courthouse door. Only two citizens attended the meeting.