UPSHUR COUNTY (KYTX) -- Upshur County commissioners are working to fill a major budget shortfall by the end of the summer. 200 people currently work for the county. Now some are worried their jobs and benefits could be on the chopping block. CBS 19's Abby Broyles spoke with commissioners and county workers today and joins us now from our Longview newsroom.
Upshur County is facing a budget shortfall of about $500-800,000 thousand of the $15 million annual budget. The county was in a similar situation last year when about a dozen county employees lost their jobs. Now with more budget cuts looming, those with the county are worried the same thing will happen again this year.
Upshur County commissioners are looking at cuts across the board. County employees are worried their jobs and benefits are on the line. Fran Gardner already has to work two jobs.
"Our pay has stayed the same the past 6 years, everything kept going up, gas has jumped to almost 4 dollars a gallon at time, groceries have gone up," Gardner said.
Precinct 2 commissioner Cole Hefner says he isn't looking at cutting jobs like the court did last year, but he says cuts to retirement are possible.
"The county's portion of matching retirement to be reduced to maybe a 1:1 match, or reduce the employees' contribution and leave it 2:1 - either one of those cuts save about a quarter of a million," Hefner said.
Tax department supervisor donna Whitaker says part of the financial problem is property taxes have between too low.
"The problem for the last 8 years has been that our commissioners court has gone below the effective rate," Whitaker says, "an effective rate is a rate we calculate that will generate approximately the same amount of revenue on the same properties as last year."
County commissioners say they don't want to raise property taxes.
"We have 40,000 citizens in Upshur County that are in the same boat and we can't just keep going to them and hitting them with tax increases," Hefner said.
But county employees are concerned that without raising taxes, they maybe out of a job.
"Don't take my retirement, don't dip into my medical benefits and don't take my job," Gardner says, "I'll forgo a raise the next 5 years."
Commissioner Hefner told us he's also looking at ways to save money by contracting out the food service at the county jail - he says that could save about $50,000.
Last year, the county dipped into its reserve funds to help make up the shortfall. Although it's not on the agenda yet, we're told county commissioners plan to talk about the budget at their next meeting on June 29th.
The budget has to be approved in September.
