Lyon County commissioners still have budget decisions to make, but after today’s meeting they are one step closer to approving the final 2008 budget.
During this morning’s meeting, commissioners set a public hearing date for the 2008 budget for 10 a.m. Aug. 30, following Tuesday publication in the Emporia Gazette.
Wednesday morning’s meeting had been relatively light-hearted before the discussion shifted to the 2008 proposed budget. County Controller Dan Slater said there were few changes from last week’s discussion. He said the proposed mill levy increase stood at 1.370 mills.
But, the levy increase will go up to a maximum of 1.8 mills following today’s vote by commissioners to approve an increase proposed last week by the Lyon County Sheriff’s Office and a small increase for the health department. Slater said the department had requested close to $100,000 in additional funds.
“The budgets are not huge increases but are outside the guidelines made by commissioners,” Slater said. “Again, I hate using the mill levy, but it’s a grade card and it’s where we are.”
On Wednesday, Commissioner Scott Briggs said he is not qualified to do either Undersheriff Richard Old’s or Sheriff Gary Eichorn’s jobs.
“You would like to think of these guys as professionals (who are) putting the budget together and (being) fiscally responsible,” Briggs said. “You hate to cut them too far.”
Commissioners decided to accept the law enforcement budget as requested by Old and Eichorn.
On Wednesday, Commission Chairman Marshall Miller said one budget that remained unchanged was the funding increase requested by the Health Department for public health and family planning. Today’s vote changed that.
Commissioner Bob Davis commended Lougene Marsh, executive director of the Flint Hills Community Health Center, for a high collection rate of fees and services. Marsh responded to his comment and said that collection rate is for the entire organization, not just the health department aspect of it.
“A lot of that is coming from the federally qualified health center rather than the local (family planning, public health),” Marsh said. “The patient fees that are collected from public health and family planning go right back into those (programs). They are clearly inadequate to sustain both of those programs.”
Miller suggested a 2 percent increase in the health department’s budget, which would raise their funding about $14,000, well shy of the $100,000 hike requested by Marsh early in the budgeting process.
Briggs expressed his feelings on the process in light of the cuts to funding requests.
“You gotta sit here and look at people...they (represent) good programs,” he said. “There’s not one of them that Lyon County shouldn’t be proud of. The problem is: how do you fund them? Who gets the ax and who gets a piece?”
During this morning’s meeting, commissioners voted 3-0 to approve publication of the budget with funding 100 percent of law enforcement’s request, about a $14,000 increase in the health department and an increase for the Lyon County Extension Office. This will cap the mill levy raise at 1.89 mills. Commissioners said they still may do some tweaking, but they cannot raise the mill levy any further after the budget is published.