Moore attributed the cuts to legislation that is being passed down by the federal government through the states that cuts funding to senior citizen programs.
"From our standpoint, the state is cutting back senior programs," Moore said. "A lot of the homemaking has already been cut back, the amount of hours, that kind of thing.
"We really haven’t really had to cut anything excessively right now. One of the things we are worried about is the extension office. They asked for $90 thousand but we only budgeted $80 (thousand)," Moore said.
The current budget, which still is due to be submitted to the state for approval and editing, is only preliminary, Moore said, but will be a more expensive budget than the previous year.
Additional funding could become available, he said, as some programs sometimes don’t indicate they will be profitable when the budget is designed.
An example is the timber cutting that is done by the Forestry Service. In the previous fiscal year, the county received over $60 thousand for timber that was cut on county property. Moore did not have this included in the budget for the 2004-2005 fiscal year as it is "found money." In the budget for the 2005-2006 fiscal year, Moore only budgeted $6 thousand, although he said that total might change depending on if there are any trees cut this year. Half of funds similar to a Forestry Service payment is given to the school, half is given to the county government.
In general, Moore said the budget for the upcoming fiscal year is a "sizeable increase" from the budget of 2004-2005.
A portion of that increase Moore attributed to "pass-through money," which he said was located in several different areas of the budget. One location was the purchase of $75,000 worth of voting machines to suit handicapped voters. Moore said the federal government will eventually foot the bill for the machines. However until that time Trigg County must pay for the machines and also include the purchase in the budget.
Moore also said the costs of the county have increased as well. Retirement for county workers was one of the larger, notable increases, he said.
"You’re talking about a sizeable amount of money that we have no control over," Moore said about the 3 percent increase in retirement funding provided to all county employees.
"We’ve got to find the money for it or fire a bunch of people," he said, adding that layoffs were not a possibility.
Despite all the apparent problems that are facing the 2005-2006 budget, Moore said these issues are typical.
"That’s what we face every year in these budgets," he said regarding issues of funding.
"We made a bare bones budget and we’ll amend it where we have to," he said.
Road Resolution approved
Also on the agenda of the meeting was the approval of a road resolution that will construct a road from US 68 to the new entrance of Benson International.
Moore informed the magistrates that the construction of the road would be funded by the state, but the maintenance after construction would be the responsibility of the county.
The road is exepected to cost $265,653, which will be paid by the state. Original plans, according to Moore was to build the road through from US 68 to Rocky Ridge Road (KY 276). Moore said this will not be possible as there isn’t enough funding available for the continuation to Rocky Ridge Road. However, he didn’t rule out the possibility as a future project.
Court to meet twice a month
Magistrates unanimously approved the rescheduling of the court’s meetings to twice in a month. The new meeting schedule will call for magistrates to meet the first and third Tuesdays of every month.
Moore said the magistrates have already been meeting more than once a month due to special meetings and the like. He suggested to the magistrates that they continue to meet on this basis for future months.
