LaGrange County Council Update
by Jac Price
LaGrange County Council met in
Special Session on Thursday September 29, 2011 to discuss the pending
2012 budget, which has a deficit of
$1,276,000. There was much discussion on where to cut or to reallocate. It
was decided to pay the $219,600 EMS
subsidy from the Hospital Trust Fund.
The county health expense of $700,000
will be paid from the County Economic
Development Income Tax Fund, and
the $271, 525 of county sheriff retirement expense will be paid for from
the Rainy Day Fund. The remainder of
out-of-balance items will be paid out
of non General Fund accounts. Based
on the information that we have, this
should balance the 2012 budget with
the income covering the requested
expenses.
The council met on October 11,
2011 to transact the regular monthly
financial activities of the county. The
council had an appointment to the
Board of Zoning Appeals to replace Bob
Shanahan, who was hired by the Plan
Commission to be the new Plan Administrator. The council chose Sheldon
Schrock from the list of applicants.
The commissioners reported that
the water and sewer line installation at
Fawn River Crossing is about completed and should be done by November 1, 2011. It was also reported that
the commissioners are in the process
of contracting a replacement for Pam
Soule as Emergency Management
Administrator.
The transfer of dollars within
separate accounts, Additional Appropriations with some deletion, a salary
ordinance and the legal claims were
approved. We also approved a request
from the Prosecuting Attorney to use
Infraction Deferral dollars to pay for a
person to attend a one day conference
in Indianapolis. The Council approved
the request.
The Council next considered the
budget adoption on the 2012 budget.
There was concern about the fact that
the expenses do not exceed the anticipated revenues in the General, Highway, and Park Funds. To the best of
our knowledge we do have a balanced
budget which will be submitted to the
Department of Local Government Finance at the state level. They will either
approve or send the budget back and
request we make further cuts. This has
been a very difficult budget to get balanced. I also do not expect the coming
years’ budgets to be any easier as there
seems to be no increases in revenue.
As always, we will try to be good
stewards of your tax dollars.
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pg 4 · The Hometown Treasure · Nov. ‘11