By NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Reno County Commissioner Daniel Friesen supports the idea of having more voices on the Board of County Commissioners.
"I'm not complaining about Reno County in particular, but, in general, when you have just a three person commission, it becomes a little hard for us to always communicate," Friesen said. "We can't communicate outside of a meeting and thus, staff and the bureaucracy can do its thing a little more freely."
Friesen also agrees in principle with Commissioner Ron Sellers about having more voices in the budget process as decisions become more difficult, but he thinks things are better than census numbers make them seem.
"We have a lot of challenges related to holding expenses down," Friesen said. "I think Reno County is growing economically. We may not be growing from a population perspective, but I do see Reno County growing and that's been a focus of mine is to increase our economic growth, to increase our tax base."
The Board was able to cut the mill levy this time around, as well.
"We have a lot of different taxing entities, more than a lot of counties adjacent to us," Friesen said. "If all of those agencies together started working and doing things like our county commission is, with a reduction, a reduction in whole will make a big difference," Friesen said. "The county changing by 5% alone isn't going to put much of a dent, but we're trying to take a lead on reducing taxes for the county."
The public vote on county commission expansion will happen in November.