08/29/12 After two days of budget hearings members of the Marshall County Council spent about an hour Tuesday re-hashing the cuts offered and made to the 2013 general fund budget.

Requests for next year were at $8,764,400 which included a 3% salary increase for employees, department heads and elected officials.  The Commissioners requested the Council not reduce the budget below $8,328,000 in order to preserve the maximum levy.  Part of their reasoning is due to the fact that the CAGIT Certified Shares revenues have been moved to a special fund.

Nearly $200,000 was reduced on Monday and council members sharpened their pencils and whittled down the budget by a total of $428,056 by noon on Tuesday.

The Probation Department took a hit once again with the reduction of their request for an additional probation officer.  That amount was $29,926.

The Marshall County Prosecutor’s Office had a number of reductions including $12,272 in wages-secretaries since they have not been reclassified.  Prosecutor Holmes spoke of the duties his staff do compared to a secretary noting they enforce and establish child support orders, deal with unhappy people, create court orders, monitor payments, and site people into court for contempt.  The commissioners also had a recommendation of no reclassifications.  The Council also cut the prosecutor’s overtime by $2,000 and the law clerk by $5,000 along with $13,118 for wages for the deputy prosecutor.

The Sheriff’s Department also took a hit with $125,000 removed from the general fund for vehicles.  The Sheriff was hoping to purchase 4 vehicles.  The council will determine the number of squad cars and the fund or funds they will use for the purchase during budget adoption in September.  The also cut $10,000 from vehicle repair, $1,000 from radar units, $5,000 for video cameras and $1,000 from deputy supplies in the CAGIT Certified Shares fund.

Other cuts were  $5,000 in wages overtime for the Assessor, $22,332 from computer software for Reassessment in the special funds, $1,000 in overtime in the Plan Commission budget, $200 out of the part time inspector for the Building Inspector  and $360 from vehicle repair.

The council also cut the surveyor’s budget by $24,000 for a new vehicle.  He will purchase one yet this year.  They closed out cutting $2,000 from repair of furniture and equipment in the museum budget.

Final budget adoptions will be in September