County moving ahead with budget cuts

The Donley County Commissioners’ Court decided last week to move ahead with a proposed budget which raises taxes by seven percent and cuts some personnel to part-time status.

In a called meeting last Wednesday, the court discussed the possibility of raising taxes to just under the rollback rate in order to keep all employees at their current status and possible give raises in the sheriff’s department.

But commissioners expressed concerns that county residents would not be happy with a higher tax rate, and the court could not seem to find a way to give deputies a raise.

Commissioner Buster Shields said people in his precinct said they would not support a tax rate near the roll back rate and that some did not want their taxes to go up at all. Commissioner Ernest Johnston said some people he had talked to said they understood that the cost of things had gone up, but he did not push for the higher rate.

“I don’t question the job our sheriff and deputies do,” said Commissioner Donnie Hall, “and I know they lay their lives on the line every time they pull somebody over and step out of the car. But I can’t see cutting one [department] to give a raise to someone else.”

Commissioners looked at the possibility of hiring another deputy for traffic control purposes as one possible way to increase revenue, but the idea did not have the support of the court.

Sheriff Butch Blackburn countered that his department had already written enough tickets to justify a raise for his deputies.

After approximately three hours, the court verbally agreed to proceed with their original seven percent tax increase and to maintain cutting secretaries in the extension office, the Precinct 1 J.P.’s office, and the tax assessor/collector’s office to part time.

The decision came one week after the court had come under fire from those departments for those cuts.

A final hearing on the 2001-2002 county budget will be held next Wednesday, September 19, at 1:30 p.m. A vote to approve the budget is expected at that time.