With 6-0 votes Oct. 16, Wayne County Council approved the county’s 2025 budget and Wayne Union Recycling’s budget.
Council worked since hearing six hours of departmental budget requests July 17 to trim the general fund budget. That budget was estimated on the Department of Local Government Finance’s Gateway website at $40,325,920. Council passed a general fund budget of $38,400,432 that includes employee raises partway to external midpoints, a 2% across-the-board raise and longevity stipends for employees having worked at least five years.
“We got into great detail, but we worked it all out and came up with a budget that’s funded with the dollars that we have, not shell-game dollars,” said council member Max Smith. “We’re in really good financial position in Wayne County.”
Commissioner Jeff Plasterer, a former council member, appreciated how the seven council members and three commissioners collaborated during the budgeting process.
“We approached this as a team of 10, and I’m very appreciative of how the process has gone,” Plasterer said. “I’m very pleased with where we’re at and how we were able to pull together to make this work.”
The 2024 general fund budget was $36,119,407.
The county budget also includes non-general funds that were estimated at $12.5 million on Gateway. That pushes the total budget to nearly $51 million.
The final line-by-line budget totals will be posted on Gateway.
Council also approved WUR’s $173,826 budget.
Public hearings for both budgets were conducted Oct. 2, but no residents spoke during the hearings.
Election workers
Clerk Debbie Berry asked council for an extra $73,000 to cover election expenses, mostly for poll workers and judges. Berry said the busier presidential election years require more workers.
Council approved paying the extra money from its contingency fund that had more than $300,000 remaining.
A version of this article appeared in the October 23 2024 print edition of the Western Wayne News.