By BARBARA GREEN
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Montague County Judge Rick Lewis told the commissioners they better “sharpen their pencils,” because despite the elected officials offering up conservative budgets the requests still exceed last year’s expenses and will require some cutting.
The commissioner’s court met Monday and tackled the budget following a lengthy agenda. The final certified values will not be available until the end of July, so they are only able to calculate projected tax rates.
Lewis reminded the court this year the county will still have the ability to increase the effective rate by up to 7.9 percent before facing any rollback; however, next year thanks to the legislature that limitation goes to 3.5 percent with anything over that amount an automatic rollback election.
During the discussion, the judge took note of several new items to be considered in the budget including one extra pay period for the year, which only rolls around every seven years. Estimated expense for that pay period is $250,000 to $255,000. Read the full story in the mid-week Bowie News.