Final budget approved
By Daniel Arens
After a long process of trying to address a potential major tax increase and the spending cuts necessary to reduce that number, the Mercer County Commission has approved its final budget for 2019.
Although numerous people raised comment in the public hearing held Sept. 19, the comments were for the most part general observations or questions on issues of management, clarification on where cuts were coming from and the responsibility for the current financial hardship of the county.
Following these discussion items, the commission turned to the approval of the budget. They didn’t make any changes to the preliminary budget mailed out in the truth and taxation statements, and ultimately approved those numbers for their final budget.
Commission Chairman Duane Scheurer was absent from the meeting. Vice Chairman Wes Gunsch presided in his absence, introducing the public hearing and asking for comment.
Commissioner Dwight Berger was the first to speak, discussing the history of deficit spending and budget amendments in the county over the last four years.
