Knox Clerk-Treasurer, Jeff Houston, told the Knox City Council that he had received a budget order from the Department of Local Government Finance. The City is going to be forced to cut $165,000. Between the Clerk, Mayor and department heads, Houston said the cuts have been made.
“We’re at the mercy of the Department of Local Government Finance to tell us exactly how much money we can spend,” said Houston. “I think we did the appropriate thing and it’s tough. I think everybody goes through this where you have to make the tough decisions and set your priorities. The Mayor and I talked to the different department heads and we asked for recommendations from them and we made the cuts that we needed to make. I think we’ll be fine for the year.”
Houston was asked why the cuts were demanded.
“We made a couple of additional appropriations last year for an eighth police officer and also for insurance premiums that had gone up. When you back that money off of what was in the General Fund, you’re allowed between approximately two and three percent increase in your funds each year. We do want to request as much money as we can to make sure that we get the maximum amount of tax dollars that the City of Knox has coming. We don’t want to ask for less money than what we have coming so we try and make sure that there is enough in the budget that we can cut when we have to.”
