County finalizes FY 2009 budget, salaries

Fernando Castro with The Meteor

In the same week that the Madisonville City Council adopted a budget, the Madison County Commissioners Court followed suit.

This past Friday, Sept. 26, the commissioners met one more time in special session regarding the 2009 fiscal year budget. Commissioners held extensive meetings earlier in the month to discuss the budget, and they also heard from organization and entity leaders on their input into the budget discussion.

The session began with adopting the official Madison County Budget for 2009. County residents who wish to view the budget may do so at the county clerk's office at the Courthouse.

The tax rate for next year was then adopted at 55 cents for every $100 valuation. Maintenance and Operations makes up 52.52 cents of the tax rate, while the other 2.48 cents is devoted to debt service.

Commissioners then ratified that the new budget will raise $129,871 less total property taxes than the previous year's budget, about 3.9 percent less. Tax revenue gathered from new property added to the tax roll will constitute $80,639.

In later action, the salary for County Auditor Toni McBee Joyner and county salaries for both the 12th and 278th judicial district court reporters were accepted. $9,123 will be devoted to the 278th district court reporter's salary, $7,168 will go towards the 12th district court reporter and the county auditor's entire salary will be $60,000, with $25,000 more allotted to be used towards an assistant.

Commissioners also voted to suspend the Madison County Longevity Policy within the Madison County employee handbook for the upcoming fiscal year. A 3 percent pay raise for all county employees was then approved as well.

County Judge Art Henson was not entirely pleased about the budget finally adopted, which included tightening of several departments' and precincts' budgets. Henson would have liked to go forward without an increased tax rate, but lower revenues than expected from 2008 forced the commissioners' hands.

“It's not a beautiful budget,” said Henson. “I'm not very proud of it, but it's the best we can do with the revenues we have.”