Budget workshops this week
By Steve Herring
Published in News on June 12, 2016 1:45 AM
Wayne County commissioners will hold two budget workshops this week.
The meetings will be held in the commissioners' meeting room on the fourth floor of the Wayne County Courthouse Annex and are open to the public.
The first workshop, at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, June 14, will focus on internal county departments.
The second, at 1 p.m. on Wednesday, June 15, will look at funding for outside agencies such as Wayne Action Teams for Community Health (WATCH) and Literacy Connections.
A copy of the budget is available for public inspection in the clerk to the board's office on the fourth floor of the Wayne County Courthouse Annex and at the Wayne County Public Library at 1001 E. Ash St.
It is also posted online at the county's official website, www.waynegov.com.
The budget could be adopted on either June 21 or June 30.
Only two people spoke on the budget proposal during a Tuesday, June 7, public hearing -- Murray Porter, who helped found Wayne WATCH and Dr. Clark Gaither, WATCH medical director.
They asked commissioners to restore full funding for the program.
There are no fee increases in proposed $148,292,780 general fund budget that reduces the tax rate from 66.50 to 66.35 cents per $100 of property value.
It includes bonuses and all employees will be evaluated in July and August and be eligible for merit pay increases.
It includes $600,000 to cover those increases.
Another $300,000 will be used to adjust some underpaid positions in the Department of Social Services.
Also, employees who achieve certain work-relation certification will be eligible for 2.5 percent salary increase.
There is no increase in insurance premiums for employees.
The proposed budget also adds personnel including 10 detention officers for the new Carey Winders Detention Center that will open this fall.
Once the new jail opens the county will have more than 400 jail beds.
That means the county will no longer have to budget nearly $1 million to house inmates in other county jails. That is reflected in the proposal has $900,000 in revenue since Wayne County can now house inmates from other counties at a cost of $50 per inmate per day.
Other additions include a staff attorney and paralegal to handle the county increasing legal workload and a communication director that would be shared with Goldsboro.
Commissioners have yet to discuss details of what those positions will cost.
But under the public affairs budget the salary line item would increase from $77,000 to $118,000 and overall the department's budget would increase from $147,350 to $251,326.
In the county attorney department, salaries would more than double from $100,550 to $213,708 and the total budget would grow from $206,975 to $354,494.
The proposal provides $20,357,123, including a supplemental appropriation of $131,734, for current expenses for Wayne County Public Schools.
It also provides $750,000 for Wayne County Public Schools' technology plan.
The $750,000 includes a one-time appropriation of $600,000 to jumpstart the plan and $150,000 earmarked for technology.
Other school funding includes: Edgewood Developmental School, $587,000; Wayne Initiative for School Health (WISH), $170,000; and mobile pre-k bus, teachers and teacher assistants, $110,000.
It provides $766,722 for school resource officers. The schools reimburse the county $359,883. Another $184,000 is reimbursed from a state grant.