Commissioners begin balancing a budget that is $3.6 million dollars out of balance
Lee County Commissioners began the first of many meetings over the next three weeks to hammer out the 2010-2011 budget.
Lee County Commissioner Bill Williams says the group is very serious about getting the budget under control. “We’re $3.6 million dollars out of balance and what we intend to do is go through each department’s budget line by line and we’re going to make the necessary cuts” says Williams.
The commission is keeping in mind that this is a difficult economy and they are promising not to raise the milledge rate, taxes, or furlough any employees.
Chairman Ed Duffy says every Lee County elected official and department head will have to plead their case to the board on why they should get more money. The board admits they are going to have to make tough decisions and scale back on many of the proposed budgets.
One area that may not be as affected by cuts is public safety. “Our main concern is public safety. There will be some increases in some of these department heads relating to public safety” says Duffy.
The commission will meet several more times over the next few weeks.
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