FARMINGTON – The proposed Franklin County budget will go before the public one last time before a nine-person budget committee sets it in stone.

At a public hearing Monday night, county taxpayers will get a chance to air their opinions or concerns on the proposed budget. After the hearing closes, the budget committee is expected to give the spending plan a thumbs-up.

Pending any unforeseen hold-ups, the three county commissioners will then vote to adopt the budget at their Dec. 16 meeting, said County Clerk Julie Magoon.

The proposed 2004 budget of $3,879,204 is up 9.61 percent or $340,224 from last year’s $3,538,980. The amount to be raised from revenues is estimated at $637,000, and from taxation, $3,242,204.

Not calculated into the figures is a change in the cost of employee health insurance.

Magoon had estimated that insurance would up 15 percent from the cost in 2003. But she recently learned that insurance for non-union employees was up 7.9 percent and for union employees 10 percent, which should help hold the mill rate, currently estimated at .00129.

Meanwhile, this week county commissioners opted to change the part-time Emergency Management Agency director’s position from part-time to full-time. That means an extra $15,000, give or take, will be added to the budget.

When the budget is handed out at Monday’s hearing, the figures will reflect the insurance cost decrease and the EMA post increase.

Cited as reasons for the budget increase are rising health insurance costs and the second phase of salary increases for county employees.

Another reason the budget is projected to increase is that several area social services agencies are coming to the county for one-stop funding instead of going to each of the county’s 17 towns and four plantations.

The budget for program grants is up from the $192,990 approved last year to about $229,330. For the first time, the county will provide one-stop funding to SAVES, $11,335, and to SeniorsPlus, $36,000.

At the public hearing, the unorganized territory budget will also be on the table for citizen discussion. After the public hearing, commissioners must also approve that budget before passing it on to the state, which has the final say.

That budget is up $129,981 over the $784,029 approved for fiscal 2003-04, to a proposed $914,010. Increases are predominantly attributed to road improvements.

sdepoy@sunjournal.com

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