In preliminary moves toward formulating the 2013 county government budget, the Monroe County Council asked county department heads to submit departmental budgets that were flat, but add a $1,000 raise for each employee.
Last week, the council invited department heads who hoped for a budget increase to present their cases at a council work session. Such requests resulted in what would be a $1.4 million increase in the county general fund budget.
At a work session Tuesday night, the council agreed by consensus to start their budget calculations by omitting those requests, and then attempt to find ways to fund them, rather than starting with a big budget and determining what should be cut.
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Budget hearings will begin at 5:30 p.m. Sept. 12 in the Charlotte T. Zietlow Justice Center, 301 N. College Ave., Room 213, and continue Sept. 13, Sept. 19 and Sept. 20.
The county council will meet at 5:30 p.m. Oct. 9 to adopt the budget.
The state requires the county to publish the maximum budget to be funded from the property tax levy, including all the county’s funds.
It is published on page C6 of Wednesday’s Herald-Times, and includes a state-set 2.8 percent growth in the levy and nearly $175,000 to offset the county’s share of a $900,000 error in property tax collections made by the county auditor’s office earlier this year.
The bottom line for all county funds: $57,980,110, of which $21,067,503 is the maximum property-tax-funded portion of the county general fund.
Last week, the Department of Local Government Financing required counties to keep separate accounting for property tax and county option income taxes, making it difficult to compare last year’s and this year’s funds.
http://www.heraldtimesonline.com/stories/2012/08/29/news.council-to-start-with-low-budget-consider-additions.sto
