WALTHALL - County leaders have approved a new budget and tax levy for the next fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1.
On Friday, the Webster County Board of Supervisors accepted the proposed 2008-09 budget of $6.02 million, which was amended from what was presented at a public hearing on Aug. 18. The board also authorized the board clerk to advertise the budget along with the levy sheet.
Supervisors adopted a supporting tax levy of 107.49 mills Tuesday, which is about one-fourth mill less than originally proposed after Tax Assessor-Collector Barbara Gore decided not to hire a bookkeeper.
Friday's meeting included an angry outburst from Sheriff Phillip Smith, who accused the board of not working with him because it cut his budget request. According to the discussion, the Sheriff's Department budget was increased 3.8 percent and will fund three deputies instead of four as Smith had proposed.
Smith said he knew the board had a limited amount of money to work with but that he felt like his department needed four deputies and that they should be better paid, noting that surrounding counties pay their deputies more.
"They do deserve to be paid," he said. "We've got a good staff but you've gotta pay them."
Presiding Supervisor Charles McClellan said the board was faced with a tough budget because of increases in various expenses, such as salaries for justice court judges, county prosecutor and public defenders; health insurance and fuel.
"I understand your frustration," he told Smith, adding that the board was trying to work with him and that it might be able to increase his budget more next year.
"I apologize that we couldn't raise it anymore but we did all we could do," said McClellan.
Supervisor Charles Rivers told Smith, "We cut everybody's budget, not just yours - even mine."
Also, board attorney Buchanan Meek Jr. pointed out that a cap existed on how much budgets could be raised and that the value of a mill in the county had decreased.
Smith apologized for, in a previous letter to supervisors, accusing Meek of submitting a revised budget for his department to the board "without any knowledge or input from myself or my staff" when "it was all the board" as he acknowledged Friday.
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