Marion County Board Chair Steve Whritenour says a day of meetings with county officials over potential budget cuts was productive.
However, he said after Monday night’s meeting it is not yet known if $266,000 in cuts were made to erase the deficit that was included in the tentative budget passed last week.
“I will tell you that all of the office holders that met with the budget committee today really went above and beyond,” Whritenour said. “They did their homework, went through each line item and even came back with suggestions that Bellweather didn’t point out. We will have those final numbers by the end of the week.”
Sheriff Kevin Cripps was able to erase $115,000 of the deficit when determining the money DCFS was paying for a deputy to accompany their case workers had not been included in the budget.
Whritenour says the numbers can then be reviewed by the county board ahead of a special meeting next Monday night when the board will be asked to give final approval to the Fiscal Year ’25 budget.
Whritenour notes the budget meeting also shows of areas county office holders can work together to potentially cut expenses.
“I think there’s a lot of areas that the different office holders can work a little better together on versus each place having their own leases, or their own contracts or thier own agreements. It was a very productive day, and like the new coroner mentioned, he said this was the most productive day he saw in 18 months.”
Budget Committee Chair Brock Waggoner warned next year’s budget will be even harder as they are using $502,000 in federal CURES money to help cover the shortfall in this year’s budget.
The special board meeting will be held at 6:30 next Monday night at the Marion County Courthouse.
