Published: October 15, 2008 06:37 am            

Treasurer: Fiscal court facing budget crunch

Local News

“The budget we started out with on July 1 is changing and may change more.”

Those were the words of County Treasurer Arlene Young on the county’s budget for the current year.

And Young said those changes weren’t necessarily for the better either.

“I feel we’ll probably see a big decrease in some funds we receive from the state and federal government,” said Young on Tuesday.

She said she has already gotten cutbacks on funds from the state and federal governments including a $40,000 bed allotment for the jail. One of the major funds for transportation work has been cut in half.

Young said evidently the state is having some budget issues and because of those issues the state has already made some cuts. She added when Governor Steve Beshear came into office he had talked of cutting the state’s budget by five percent, which would trickle down to the county if it occurred.

Meanwhile, she said, as far as federal monies, budget cuts would mean less grants are out there for counties to receive.

To help with the unpredictable budget, Young said, to be safe, the county has cut out overtime and comp time, they are trying to hold travel to a minimum, have a hiring freeze and are only doing basic road work.

“I have recommended we cut to the bare bones on everything,” said Young.

A discussion on the budget came up yesterday in Pulaski Fiscal Court after Jailer Mike Harris asked if the court would approve making a third position in the front office, which is currently part-time, into a full-time position.

“Where’s the money coming from?” asked Fourth District Magistrate Glenn Maxey.

“Right now I don’t know,” said Young. “Right now there are cuts being made from all our allocations.”

Young added that the budget is unpredictable, so she would not recommend them creating the position.

“It’s nothing about Mike’s budget,” said Young. “We just don’t know what we’re going to have.

“I really can’t say we can afford it,” added Young.

Fifth District Magistrate Mike Strunk asked Young when she might have a better idea about budget issues.

“I don’t think we’ll know until at least January,” said Young, who noted the state is going to affect them as much as the economy.

Pulaski County Judge-executive Barty Bullock said he believed they should hold off on adding the position and see what happens with the budget first.

Young said with the effects of the economy, she is also afraid the occupational tax will go down, as some businesses are cutting employees and the economy trickles down to the county because of that.

“We hope it won’t affect manufacturing in the area,” said Young, “but we can’t predict.”

Young said she believes this is the first time since she has worked for the county tht the budget is going to change enough to worry about it.

“I can’t in good conscience tell the court we have enough money for anything right now,” said Young.

Bullock agreed with the decision of Young that it could be a bad situation.

“Hopefully it doesn’t come to that,” said Bullock.

“We have to start taking steps to avoid that before it gets here,” he added.

        

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