As the Kanawha County Commission moves closer to finalizing its annual budget, commissioners continue working through a $700,000 deficit that is shaping how they decide to allocate funding.
“From all of the budget requests we’ve received from our internal offices or elected officials and our external offices, things like the humane association, that total, if we were to say yes to that entire binder is $492,000. So that right there is looking at almost $1.5 million increasing expenses,” Commissioner Lance Wheeler said.
Revenues have risen by only $300,000, but commissioners said they expect a $500,000 increase in jail costs and another $500,000 increase in PEIA expenses.
“That’s a million dollars right there that we’re going to have to come up with in our budgets and we’re looking at every avenue,” Wheeler said.
Last week, commissioners listened to budget requests from elected officials and outside agencies. One of the larger requests came from the Kanawha County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, which asked to add a new employee to help manage child abuse and neglect cases.
“We have had an increasing number of abuse and neglect cases in Kanawha County and we are asking for one additional staff person to help them carry that load into the abuse and neglect set,” Ken Bannon, chief of staff for the Kanawha County Prosecuting Attorney told Commissioners on Thursday.
Sheriff Joe Crawford also requested a $130,000 increase for the Kanawha County Sheriff’s Office budget. Of that amount, $80,000 would cover rising software contract costs, and $50,000 would go toward vehicle maintenance.
“We’ve been able to move some stuff around at the end to make sure it worked. We’re getting to the point now, I don’t know that we can do that, but the increase, that’s the big part of the increase on this year’s budget, it was the $100,000,” Sheriff Crawford told Commissioners on Thursday.
Commissioners will approve the final numbers at the end of March, and the new budget will take effect on July 1.