County
preparing for budget adjustments?
Lincoln County manager George Wood
has asked county department heads to
cut five percent from county budgets.
By Jon
Mayhew
LINCOLN COUNTY (Jan. 6, 2011)
– The Carolina Scoop learned
Wednesday county manager George Wood
is asking county departments to cut
five percent from budgets.
Wood confirmed he has asked all
county departments to work on the
cuts for the upcoming fiscal year.
Two years ago, county employees were
asked to furlough 10 days due to
budget constraints.
Wood said “it's too early in the
process to talk about
furloughs."
The information came to light during
an interview with Lincoln County
Sheriff David Carpenter, where he
told the news channel he is working
to cut five percent from the
Sheriff's Department budget.
Carpenter said the five percent
translates to about $500,000.
“One way (we've already cut
around $200,000) is to choose not to
fill some unfilled positions,”
said Carpenter. “They include
the Director of Professional
Standards, the Chief Deputy and a
couple of lieutenant positions.”
Earlier this week, county manager
Wood told Lincoln County
Commissioners the county may not get
the full amount of E911 monies from
the state as first expected.
According to Wood, the county is
supposed to get more than $500,000
from the state; however, the state is
suggesting giving the county around
$300,000.
“We're going to take a
hit,” warned Wood.
As Wood explained, like other
counties, Lincoln has saved E911
monies to put towards equipment and
other expenditures towards the
Lincoln County Communications Center,
which is under the county's control.
Wood said as an example, the county
is looking at purchasing the
communications tower behind the
Sheriff's Office. If the state takes
the money, the purchase will more
than likely not happen for the
foreseeable future.
So if the state takes $200,000 from
Lincoln County, where would the money
go?
“It would go to poorer
counties,” said Wood. “The
state isn't looking at how counties
are planning to use the money, the
state is only looking at its own fund
balance.”
Wood added the E911 monies cannot be
used to balance the state's budget.
