Montgomery County Commission Passes Expanded Budget
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We spent months watching and waiting for lawmakers in the state house to pass a budget this year.
But at the local level in Montgomery, things were much simpler today.
Montgomery County is looking at an increase of almost 6 percent this year, bringing the total budget up to almost 110 million dollars.
While things are going well for the county, Commission Chairman Elton Dean says he still wants to continue responsible budgeting.
That means the hiring freeze is here to stay another year.
“We’re going to continue with the hiring freeze. Like I always tell people, we know what good managers we are when we can’t hire the people that we think we need, so we have not suffered since we’ve had this hiring freeze over the years,” said Dean.
Public Safety is getting a big chunk of the budget, including about one million extra dollars.
Sheriff Derrick Cunningham is looking forward to updating his office with that money.
“I’m excited about this year, the county really reached out to us and this things that we requested as far as replacing some of our vehicles. They’ve been very good to us this year,” said Sheriff Cunningham.
With state lawmakers taking so long to find the funds to just keep the state government going, you may wonder what’s making things work at the local level.
Dean says it comes down to politics, or the lack thereof.
“We know how to do a budget. And I guess we don’t have any special interests. We are concerned about the people that we represent and our employees that perform their duties day by day. We don’t want anyone to lose their job, we want everyone to have good healthcare. We want our roads to be safe,” said Dean.
One of the reasons for the increased budget this year is the rising cost of healthcare, but Dean says the county still has one of the best plans around.
Just like the state, the county’s fiscal year starts on October 1st.
