News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Putnam County officials viewed a preliminary budget Monday that shows a $3.7 million increase to the county general fund.
Budget Committee Chairman Ben Rodgers said the upcoming fiscal year budget will be one of the toughest he’s ever faced.
“I’ve had a chance to look at this with Randy, and it’s tough. There’s a lot of requests in here and there’s a lot of increases,” Rodgers said. “We have to be diligent and we’ve got to communicate because this is the toughest budget year in my five years.”
The budget includes requests for 22 new employees, a $1.2 million proposed increase for the jail, and a $672,000 increase for county employee benefits.
The Highway Department has requested $495,825 more than last year and the Debt Service fund will require an additional $1 million. Putnam County Mayor Randy Porter noted that the above funds are not included in the County General Fund.
“If you add all of them together, not counting schools, it’s $5.1 million in the red for all the departments but with no revenue considered yet,” Porter said. “That’s just above what was approved last year in the budget.”
The Putnam County Budget Committee met for the first time Monday to begin the upcoming budget process. Rodgers said decisions will need to be made when the committee meets again next month.
“This cycle is so important this year that we cannot take it lightly,” Rodgers said. “When you get through this the next two weeks, we’ll come back and want you to decide which department heads you want to see first.”
The committee will meet May 13th to begin scheduling one-on-one meetings with specific department heads.
