LaGrange County Council
The LaGrange County Council met
in regular session on Monday and Tuesday September 10 and 11. The primary
purpose of these two days of meetings
was to hold the Public Hearing on the
proposed budgets which were presented at the August meetings. Based
on all of the information that the
Council had available we had requests
in excess of revenues and Fund Balances in the amount of $1,343,000. It
was decided at the start that we would
reduce this amount by the requests for
pay increases and new personnel and
would address these personal services
increases at the end of the hearings.
With this as a starting position,
the Council began interviewing Department Heads and looking for places
to either cut or reassign requests to
non General, Health, Parks Budgets.
The large item that was taken out
of the General Fund was the Sheriff
Department Pension of $291,816 and
it was moved to the Rainy Day Fund.
We also removed the $300,000 for
Health Insurance in the Commissioners budget and it was moved to the Edit
Fund. We also moved the Council on
Aging and the 4-H Association funding
of $40,000 each in the Commissioners budget to the Riverboat Fund. We
defunded the Election Board request
of $20,325 since there is no election
scheduled in 2013. The Sheriff Department Canteen line item was reduced by
$15,000. Information Tech Software
Maintenance was reduced by $10,000
as well as a $10,000 reduction in the
Animal Shelter Maintenance line
item. In addition there were a number
of line items that were cut in lesser
amounts which amounted to total cuts
of $775,241.
We next discussed the employee
side of the equation. It was the feeling of the Council that we should give
a three percent pay increase which
with fringe benefits will amount to
$207,000 plus the additional person-
nel that was requested, which will add
another $73,000. With the possibility of some carry over funds and the
amount the county has in operating
balance, we ask the Auditor to prepare
a report that will detail all of the items
that have been proposed over the
past two days and bring that back to a
special Council meeting on September
27, 2012. It is anticipated that we are
within the revenue and expense window and will have a budget that can
be approved at the regular meeting on
October 8, 2012.
In addition to the budget discussion the normal monthly business
was dealt with. The minutes of past
meetings were read and approved.
Legal Claims of $7,573.50 were
presented and approved. Transfers of
account funds within departments
and additional appropriations were
also approved.
As always, we will try to be good stewards of
your tax dollars.
The Hometown Treasure · October ‘12 · pg 49