Lyon County commissioners spent the better half of their Wednesday meeting discussing the 2009 budgets, continuing the discussion of where to trim to bring the potential mill levy increase down another notch.
During today’s commission meeting, commissioners met with department heads within the county to discuss individual budgets. During Wednesday’s meeting, commissioners talked about the budget in general. County Controller Dan Slater said there is about $115,000 in money from 2008’s budget that doesn’t look like it will be spent. That money can be carried over into 2009’s budget, which amounts to nearly a half of a mill.
County Counselor Marc Goodman, who also is the Lyon County attorney, talked about the cuts in Kansas Legal Services’ requests. Lyon County slashed the office’s allocation request by $4,000 in an attempt to keep requests level. Goodman said Kansas Legal Services will pull out of its contract with Lyon County to provide legal counsel for those who can’t afford it. This would force the county to pay a higher price for legal counsel. The county pays $50 an hour for Kansas Legal Services attorneys.
“The bottom line on legal services is everybody has the right to counsel,” Goodman said. “Somebody has to pay for that legal counsel.”
Goodman said it’s hard to tell how many trials there will be and how many public representations will be needed in the future. Goodman said if a juvenile case goes to trial and the county is billed for 100 hours, there will be a $3,000 differential between Kansas Legal Services’ rate of $50 compared to another attorney’s rate at $80 an hour.
Commissioner Bob Davis expressed concern about the county’s road and bridge budget.
“Have you compared ours with any other county?” Davis asked Commissioner Marshall Miller. “I will answer that for you: No you have not.”
Davis said the county must fund necessities.
“We do a better job than any other county I’ve compared it to,” Davis said. “My point is you have to fund necessities. Your infrastructure, whether it be rural or city. Nobody in this county is realizing that or in the city. They just don’t take responsibility and it’s going to get worse.”
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