The Commissioners Court conducted a budget workshop Tuesday morning. The workshop looked at capital outlay requests from various county departments, projected revenues, and expenditures for the next fiscal year which starts October 1. Auditor Mary Johnson presented a proposed budget to the Court that showed expenditures exceeding expected revenues by about $3.8 million, but with an assumed carryover of four million dollars from this fiscal year the county would still be in the black by about $227,000. County Judge Brint Carlton summarized the preparation still needed for the budget to be approved. Carlton stated that the Court still needs to make decisions on capital outlay expenditures, any potential increase in employees’ salaries, any potential increase in elected officials’ salaries, and whether or not to fund all the recommendations of the Reclassification Committee.
All of the recommendations of the Reclassification Committee would raise the county’s budget by about $140,000. It also raised a controversy on the Commissioners Court as not all the members of the Court before the meeting had received a copy of the recommendations which apparently was marked confidential. Commissioner John Banken requested a copy of the recommendations. Banken expressed concern that he had not been given a copy of the recommendations before the workshop and did not want to receive it the day of the next meeting during which he would have to make a vote on it. He said the court has to make decisions and needs all the data in advance to study it. County Judge Carlton explained the paper was marked confidential since the contents were not to be made public, and promised each Commissioner would be given a copy of it this week to allow them time to study it.
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