Decatur County Commissioners met for another work session on the County budget on Monday afternoon.  The budget shortfall is now back down to between $400,000 and $450,000.  After their June 23 work session, the shortfall was estimated at $900,000.

Finance Director Carl Rowland stated that in another meeting with Tax Assessor Ruth Eakin, they had again reviewed the very complex state formula regarding the new conservation tax law.  He stated they recalculated the loss of state revenue and it is now expected to only be about $115,000, rather than the original estimate of over $400,000

In a June 24 "urgent" memo to "Elected Officials and Department Heads" from the Finance Committee of Commissioners Earl Perry and Russell Smith, they stated
"We send this memo seeking your immediate assistance with a major 2009/2010 Budget matter."
The memo went on to say
"The choices available for us to handle this shortage are three: cut the planned expenditures OR raise property taxes OR do a combination of cuts and tax increase."

"We ask that you immediately review your proposed budget and provide us, by noon on Monday, June 29, with ALL cuts that you can identify. We greatly prefer for you to do as much cutting as you can instead of our having to do so for you."

Commissioners are working, or rather praying, that they can arrive at a united front with all commissioners voting to do the same thing.  Commissioner Butch Mosely has made it very clear that he will not vote for a millage increase.

So another round of meetings is scheduled.  Commissioners will meet and review departmental budgets with department heads and elected officials.  These meetings are scheduled to begin at 8 am on Friday, July 10th.  After the sessions, Commissioners will meet and set the millage increase in the property tax.

Commissioners are removing expenditures for the Development Authority and Hospital Authority from the Decatur County budget.  This amounts to between $400,000 and $450,000.  Commissioners plan to set a millage rate specifically allocated to the Development Authority at .25 and the Hospital Authority at .32, which is estimated to be about the same amount as they receive now.