Hendry Commissioners Hold Budget Workshops - Now Ready For Public Comment
LABELLE, FL. -- The Hendry County Board of County Commissioners met on August 18th and19th at a public workshop to work on the 2009-2010 county budget. The Commissioners were looking for a 10% decrease in the budget across the board from both the general fund and from the constitutional officers.
As a result of cost cutting measures by the Board, for the second year, Hendry county employees will not receive any cost of living increases, raises or bonuses. Commissioner Tris Chapman said, ''Call me old fashioned, but when property values decline by 10% as they have on average this year, our constituents should see a 10% decrease in their property taxes."
Hendry C0unty Commissioners as well as all elected officials receive a state mandated salary, based on county population. They could elect to voluntarily give back a portion to the county if they desired, in lieu of a wage cut.
One area under consideration is the cost of employee health insurance benefits. Employees would be asked to take on a greater share of the costs for their insurance benefits. Commissioner Kevin McCarthy stated that health insurance is a huge issue and must remain affordable.
Constitutional officers, the Clerk of Court, and County Property Appraiser, also worked to reduce their budgets by the suggested cuts. The Commissioners expressed a desire for consistency in the budget process as opposed to only asking one part of the government to cut their costs. Commissioner Janet Taylor expressed her appreciation for the hard work done by her fellow Commissioners and staff in reviewing the budget and finding areas to reduce costs.
The workshop discussions continued on August 25th regarding the Hendry County Sheriff's budget. The Sheriff committed to saving money wherever he could to reduce his budget. Insurance is an area he will be looking into to make some additional adjustments. Commissioner Harris conveyed his appreciation for the excellent job staff did in restoring the $2.7 million the Commissioners borrowed from the Disaster Relief fund used to balance the FY 2009 budget.
The first public hearing on the proposed 2010 budget is scheduled for September 3rd at 5:15 p.m. in the Clewiston City hall located at 115 W. Ventura. The second public hearing is scheduled for September 22nd at 5:15 p.m. in the Hendry County Courthouse in LaBelle. For further information please call 863-675-5264.
Go ahead pat yourself on the back I understand because No one else is going to.Ive got a idea ,Cut your pay 10% and All the top over paid department heads 10% Then the tax paying citizens will pat you on the back.
ReplyDeleteTry at least a 20% cut for all people making over $50k annually. Or eliminate county administration department all together and let the commissioners run the county. Each commissioner could be responsible for a specific activity/department.
ReplyDeleteMost departments will run fine or better without so many meeting and hoops to jump in order to get any done.
According to some will save almost 1 million dollars annually
Increasing insurance charges penalize the lower paid working people.
yahoo for both of the above comments! cuts my butt start from the top and work DOWN let the commissioners run a dept oh i forget they are considered parttime but they claim they work fulltime yeah right judy needs another raise and about six more assistants oh and more attornys lets cut it back to the point where we just forget having a county admininistration and depts as well. sub contract all services out to the private businesses in hendry and let the commissioners dole it out.
ReplyDeletebut hey got to admit its better than watching the comedy central none of em got any darn common sense and all of em have a higher than mighty attitude towards everyone
if chapman is so smart and is on so many organizational committees let him start runnin this place like it should
people are tired of this i know my taxes cannot go down, and my property value go down, and have an administration with six figure salaries
some one wake up harris and have taylor start makin sense dont forget mccarthy who dont care no more as he aint running no more, and the kid who doesnt reelly make no sense
power to the people
How about, we start cutting the pay of anybody making as much as a commissioner and work from there.
ReplyDeleteThen you could start by asking the TWO commissioners that currently draw a pay check from US SUGAR, why they feel the need to keep cutting the workers, and not the executives? Seems odd to me that the majority of the pay in the county goes to less than 10% of the employee's!
WISE up people, until you DEMAND your elected officials to behave, they will keep stealing your money from you!