Commission passes $126.4 mil budget

By Cliff McCollum
Posted 9/23/16

Tuesday morning, the Baldwin County Commission unanimously passed an almost $126.4 million dollar budget for the upcoming fiscal year.

County Administrator Ron Cink gave a short presentation on …

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Commission passes $126.4 mil budget

Posted

Tuesday morning, the Baldwin County Commission unanimously passed an almost $126.4 million dollar budget for the upcoming fiscal year.

County Administrator Ron Cink gave a short presentation on the budget where he pointed out some of the highlights for the commissioners and the public present.

“There’s a 17 percent reduction in this year’s budget from last year’s, which is largely due to the large amount of FEMA funds we received for infrastructure repair during last year’s budget cycle,” Cink said.

Cink outlined some of the areas of focus for the upcoming 2016-2017 budget, which included some raises for the county’s law enforcement.

“We were heavily focused on law enforcement this year, specifically the training and retention of deputies,” Cink said.

Sheriff Huey “Hoss” Mack said he was grateful for the salary raises that would be given to deputies, corrections officers and communications officers within his department.

“This did not just come as an idea, but as a process,” Mack said. “We did salary surveys in Baldwin County and across Alabama and found that we were behind in all three categories in Baldwin County. Over the years, we have lost deputy sheriffs to other departments and private sector jobs because of salary issues.”

Mack said the changes will raise starting salaries for deputies to $20 per hour and corrections and communications officers to $15 per hour.

“This does not make us number one, but it does make us competitive,” Mack said.

Commission Chairman Tucker Dorsey said the decision to try to raise the pay for sheriff’s department workers was an easy one.

“There’s nothing that’s going to add to quality of life here like the sheriff’s department and the schools,” Dorsey said.

Commissioner Frank Burt, who served as the budget chair this year, said the budget process was always a long one, but he was pleased with the results.

“We always have to be careful about fiduciary responsibilities to the citizens,” Burt said. “We want to take care of them and spend their money wisely.”

Burt said he felt the focus on law enforcement was a good one and said he was also proud of the amounts being dedicated to road and bridge work.

“Making sure our law enforcement and first responders are taken care of is certainly important, but they can’t do much for us if we don’t have good road and bridges to travel on,” Burt said.

Commissioner Chris Elliott thanked Burt for his leadership on the budget this year, adding that the budget process was one of the commission’s biggest responsibilities.

“This is the single most important thing that this commission does every year,” Elliott said. “This is a big year for us, with a reduction in headcount of 63, a general fund reduction and increases for our law enforcement officials that are long, long overdue."

Commissioners encouraged residents who wanted to look over the full budget to visit the county’s website for full details.