The Kanawha County Commission will meet Tuesday morning for elected officials to present their budgets for the 2016-2017 fiscal year.
The Commission previously foreshadowed a budget cut of about $1 million, with 3 percent cuts to county agencies. President Kent Carper didn’t expect any surprises based on the recommendations made.
“I think you’ll see our elected officials have already written their budgets following our request,” he said. “About a 3 percent cut on each one of them, and we’re also proposing line item cuts across the board. At the end of the day, we simply will have a balanced budget.”
Carper said that times are hard, and just as individuals must live on a tight budget, so must the county.
“I cannot imagine any government not realizing that these are tough times,” Carper said. “The public expects us to live within our means just like they have to.”
While many county governments are experiencing severe budget shortfalls due to the loss of coal severance money, Carper pointed out that Kanawha County is not in that position due to preparation.
“We realized that coal severance was going to go down; we saw that coming (and) budgeted accordingly,” he said. “Additionally, we quit expanding the workforce now for about five years in a row. Beyond all of that, it’s important to know our finances are solid; they’re stable.”
Carper said that any raises were out of the question this year, but no layoffs were expected either.
“What we’re not going to do is what I’ve seen done in other places, where you had to start firing people or laying people off, or have these erratic problems. (The budget cut) is something we’re just going to deal with.”
The commission intends to finalize the 2016-2017 budget by the middle of March. The budget must be submitted to the state by March 28.
The meeting will take place at 8:30 a.m.