Finance Committee Finds New Cuts in Knox County

knox county sealAfter already agreeing to massive cuts in the county budget, the Knox County Finance Committee found another $85,000 in potential cuts last night.

The county’s general fund faces a $1.2 million deficit that the finance committee has been tasked with reducing.

Prior to the start of last night’s meeting, County Treasurer Robin Davis said that number was down to about $788,000. The latest batch of cuts focuses on departments outside the general fund.

Finance Committee Chairman Greg Bacon tells WGIL the deficit has been a long time coming.

“We should have been cutting for the last 10 years,” Bacon says. “We should have been downsizing our operations for the last 10 years. We haven’t. We’ve downsized as far as expenses go, but we need to downsize more. And now all the last 10 or 12 years has caught up with us.”

The committee suggested $55,000 in cuts from the Health Department, $27,500 from the Knox County Nursing Home and $2,700 from Animal Control.

Those suggestions will be brought to department heads tonight for further review.

“Expenses are up, revenue is down,” Bacon says. “We’re cutting expenses. It’s just a cat and mouse game we should have been playing 10 years ago, but we haven’t played it.”

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