Franklin County workers may have to take furlough days during the next budget year the help the county commission meet its goal of cutting next year’s budget by 1.1 million dollars.
County commissioners are facing strong pressure from local taxpayers to bring the budget under control; last night the board spent 5 hours working on ways to cut the budget.
Taxpayers groups like the Concerned Citizens of Franklin County, the St. George Island Civic Club and the Alligator Point Taxpayers Association were calling for cuts of 2.2 million dollars which would be needed to keep this year’s millage rate the same as last year’s but commissioners felt cutting the budget by that much would require firing workers and cutting county services.
The board instead set a 1.1 million dollar goal for the cuts as a compromise.
Commissioners managed to trim nearly 750 thousand dollars by taking 500 thousand dollars out of capital outlay and another 250 thousand from reserve for contingency.
The board also agreed to stop funding the county extension office which will save 28 thousand dollars and they officially adopted increased courthouse fees which will add an additional 23 thousand dollars to county revenue.
The Supervisor of Elections office will be moved to a county owned building next January which will save taxpayers another 22 thousand dollars in rent and utility costs.
That leaves the county with about 255 thousand dollars to cut to hit the 1.1 million dollar goal and they realize that will not happen without county employees taking a hit.
The board is considering requiring that its 169 employees take unpaid furlough days in the next budget year which could slice another 160 thousand dollars from the budget though the board has not yet agreed to how many days each employee will have to take off.
The commission is also considering a 10 percent budget cut for the tax collectors office and the property appraiser’s office to help save even more.
By the end of last night’s public budget hearing, the board had cut the ad valorem portion of the budget from 9.8 million dollars to 8.9 million and expect to make even more cuts at their final budget hearing on September the 20th.
http://www.oysterradio.com e-mail manager@oysterradio.com with comments
No comments:
Post a Comment