By ROD ZOOK
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Reno County commissioners are trying to hold the line on the budget and stay revenue neutral under the state’s new guidelines. County Administrator Randy Partington says the recent budget meetings went well.
“The county commission had a lot of great questions for the departments and some of the outside agencies and fire districts for making their requests known,” Partington said. “At the end, the county commission gave me some direction to make a few cuts.”
Partington says cuts have been made in several areas with the hope of bringing the county’s mill levy in under 40 mills for the year.
“They wanted the museum's request to go back to the 2021 budget amount, which was about a $25,000 cut,” Partington said. “They wanted a small cut from the county fair . . . I pulled $1,500 out of that so they get a $2,000 increase.”
The cuts also went along personnel and capital purchase line items.
“Some of the other cuts that the commission wanted me to look at is the reduction of one vehicle purchase for the sheriff’s office in their capital. That’s about a $37,000 cut,” Partington said. “A cut of $15,000 from the district attorney’s office personnel line item, which was for leave payout.”
That payout is for offset costs to the office to pay out vacation time for employees who retire or leave the office.
If the cuts fall into place, the county will see the mill levy fall to 39.4 from 41.6 mills, or about 5%. That does not include the fire, sewer and water districts budget, which will be above the revenue neutral level.
The commissioners will go over the budget again during a meeting on Tuesday.
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