The Marion County Board has settled on a $266,000 in budget cuts for the current fiscal year that would eliminate the deficit and give them a balanced budget.
The board made the decision in favor of the 2.8-percent budget cut in a special Friday night meeting after passing a 10-percent across-the-board budget cut at its regular meeting on Tuesday which could have required as much as a $1.2-million reduction in spending.
The 10-percent cut was ruled out after State’s Attorney Tim Hudspeth says with the size of the county’s contingency fund they could not legally make a cut that big. In addition, the board was told by its consultant some line items, including those with mandated salaries, could not be cut at all.
The board also considered no budget cuts at all to the budget presented on Tuesday, but Board Chair Steve Whritenour says with declining revenues the majority of the board felt that wasn’t the answer either.
“You have to start somewhere. Just to take money instantly out of contingency just was not an option, I didn’t feel. We have to make the cut. We have to keep a strong contingency money. There are different things coming down from the state. The very first thing we have to consider as a county board is animal control. In our animal control, we have the $90,000 that is budgeted. We don’t have a contract with anyone anymore and that money is definitely going to go up. So we have to make some very tough decisions and that money is going to come out of the contingency fund.”
A daylong meeting is set for December 23rd when the county board will meet with individual officeholders to see how they can cut their budgets by the needed 2.8 percent.
The tentative budget is now available for review at the county clerk’s office for 15 days. The board will schedule a special meeting on December 30th to get a budget in place before the end of the year and before the county begins a second month without a budget.
Four members of the board voted against the 2.8-percent budget cut. They are Debbie Smith, Adam Smith, Tim McCance, and Sharon Woodward. Some of those voting no were unhappy with the last-minute budget cuts, especially during the Christmas Season.
Public Defender Craig Griffin and Circuit Clerk Tiffany Schicker, along with Lieutenant Anthony Decker of the Sheriff’s Department expressed concerns about a 10 percent cut during public comments at the start of the meeting and questioned if they would be possible. There was also unhappiness with lack of talks with the office holders before the 10-percent budget cuts were made.
