County Departments Agree to More Cuts

knox county sealThe County Finance Committee met yet again last night to discuss more than $300,000 in cuts.

The Landfill Department alone saw about $200,000 worth of reductions while the Highway Department agreed to an $80,000 cut.

Committee Chairman Greg Bacon had no definite update on how many jobs are in jeopardy, but said the number was down from early estimates between 30 and 40.

Following Monday’s committee meeting, Chairman Brian Friedrich estimated between 10 and 20 jobs could still be on the line.

Bacon tells WGIL the sloppy handling of county finances that has persisted for the last decade stops now.

“It used to be that every month we’d get a couple pages, ‘we want to move money from here to here because we went over budget,'” Bacon says. “Well, now we want ’em to sit down and we want ’em to come and tell us, ‘I want to move money from this line item to this line item and this is why I need to do it.’ And that’s from now on what we do. We’re not going to just have a blanket approach to line item changes anymore. You’re going to have to bring your case to the finance committee.”

The cuts stem from a $1.2 million deficit in the county’s general fund, which now sits at about $788,000.

Last night’s cuts were of departments paid for outside the general fund. Committee meetings continue Monday with heads of the Health Department and State’s Attorney’s Office.

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