By Emma Rausch
emma@thepaperofwabash.com
WABASH COUNTY, Ind. – After a 6-1 vote, the Wabash County Council adopted a $19 million budget for 2018 Monday night, Sept. 25.
In total, the budget amounted to $19,195,214 with a $10,127,210 General Fund, an assessed value of $1,331,828,759 and a state appointed estimated 2018 max levy at $4,827,598, Auditor Marcie Shepherd told The Paper of Wabash County.
“We spent several days and several hours going through all of that, and I would like to thank the department heads for their work in all of that,” Council Chair Jeff Dawes said prior the budget’s adoption. “It made our job easier and I personally was pretty well pleased with where we ended up or where we thought we were going to be at from the amount previous to that.”
Councilmember Matt Dillon was the sole vote against the budget’s adoption.
“There’s a little bit that I was kind of curious and we kind of discussed it at the budget hearings about some totals and increases over the last year,” Dillon told The Paper, “and I kind of had questions about where those numbers come from and why it increased so much and I’ve been a little unable to figure that out. So at this time, I just didn’t feel like it was right.”
Dillon said his worry wasn’t about the county departments’ budgets.
“They all balanced well,” he said. “It was just questions about where the stuff comes from with the state’s numbers and I felt the council did a good job of balancing things out, but … they had some uncertainties.”