Butler County Commissioners Hoping to Have Balanced Budget |
Tuesday, February 3, 2009 8:50:36 AM - Middletown Ohio |
By: Tara Kunkle
Butler County commissioners are hoping to have a balanced budget together by Thursday, February 5th. Last week the Butler County Common Pleas Court helped them out by submitting a budget with more than $500,000 in cuts.
Around 10 percent of the cuts were achieved largely by halting hiring, pay raises and expansion of programs, including drug and other popular court diversion programs. With different caseloads ballooning local courts can’t afford to keep the cuts or slice any deeper. As of right now things are not promising for the better in the long term.
Along with other submitted budgets the court cuts put commissioners less than $2 million away from shoring up a $7 million gap between the county’s original general fund budget for this year and the projected revenues during the ongoing recession. Commissioners have not announced how they are going to fix the hole. The county is currently operating off of an interim budget passed in December.
For part of the cost-saving effort commissioners on Monday February 2nd approved a 5 percent pay cut. This was for nine department directors with the highest take-home pay under commissioners’ control.
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