The newly enacted Lake County income tax gives county government officials a little extra green as they begin drawing up their 2014 spending plans.
The Lake County Council announced its budget workshop schedule Wednesday. It features a number of public meetings and workshop sessions, including a seven-hour kickoff where dozens of elected officials and appointed department heads outline their proposed budgets beginning 9 a.m. Aug 27.
Additional workshop sessions are set for Sept. 4, 5, 11, 12, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 24, 26 and 30, when the budget is to receive its final reading and vote.
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They are likely to be confronted with a wave of spending-increase requests, such as helping the bulk of the county's 1,695 full-time employees who haven't received across-the-board pay raises since 2006.
Dante Rondelli, financial director for the Lake County Council, said he is bracing for spending proposals that include: $5 million to maintain sanitation and health care improvements in the Lake County Jail as required by the U.S. Department of Justice, another $7 million to shore up employee pension and health care benefits and more than $3 million to maintain the county's bridges and flood-control waterways.
