By Diane Petryk
LEWISBURG — Needing to meet the costs of a first-degree murder trial for the first time in more than 30 years — expected to exceed $500,000 — made budgeting for 2010 a daunting task for the Union County commissioners.
Employees will get only a 1 percent pay hike, but the property tax rate won’t rise from the 5.31 mills set in 2009.
In a special meeting Thursday, the county board unanimously approved a $3.25 million budget, nearly $400,000 less than one proposed Dec. 8. A large subtraction was made in the line item for county buildings. The $860,925 amount expected to be needed earlier in the month was reduced to $552,059, largely by refiguring amounts needed for rehabilitation of the courthouse on South Second Street.
“When we decided to put in new windows, that cut out the amount needed for painting the old windows,” Commissioner Preston Boop said. “New windows cut the costs dramatically.”
The rest of the reduction was found by applying about $100,000 in capital reserve funds, Boop said.
“As you look at counties around us, we didn’t go through and hatchet our staff and make other cuts. ...” he said. “In tough times, we think we have a budget we can live with.”
Commissioner John Showers said it’s a “bare bones” budget severely impacted by the pending trial of Roderick Sims, charged with shooting and killing his girlfriend in a Lewisburg apartment in September 2008.
The county has to pay for both the prosecution and defense in that case, as well as all the forensics, witness costs and other costs, the commissioners said.
Showers said, “We held off on a tax increase and were as fair as we could be with employees, leaving their health insurance intact.”
Employees, however, get less than the usual cost-of-living raise with no step or merit increases.
In years past, cost-of-living increases were 2 percent to 3 percent, Boop said, and employees could have gotten as much as an 8 percent pay hike with longevity and merit pay boosts.
The county’s highest paid employee, Chief Clerk Diana Robinson, will see her salary rise from its 2009 rate of $72,000 to $73,000 in 2010. The second-highest paid employee, County Planner Shawn McLaughlin, will earn $66,400 in 2010.
The commissioners also signed a resolution Thursday keeping the general millage rate a 4.81, the debt service millage at 0.34 and the library millage at 0.16. A mill is $1 for every $1,000 in assessed property value.
In other business, the commissioner gave final approval, also unanimously, to the county comprehensive plan, titled “Cultivating Community: A Plan for Union County’s Future.”
“It was a long process with a lot of community involvement,” McLaughlin said.
“It’s not an ordinary plan,” Showers said. John Mathias, the third commissioner, agreed. “Anyone can write a plan, but to get down to the tactical level that you guys did” is commendable, he said.
McLaughlin distributed brochures that summarize the work and said the full plan is available for study in the county office or on the county’s Web site. It eventually will be made available at the county library as well, he said.
