Cape County Commission, live blog: budgets

10:30 a.m. Rock Finch, the Republican running as an Independent candidate against 2nd District commissioner Jay Purcell, just arrived. (Paul Koeper, Republican candidate for 1st District commissioner Larry Bock’s seat, arrived at 9:30 a.m.)

The commissioners are wrapping up a conversation with Don McQuay on costs of the HVAC for the Court of Common Pleas. It appears the county will have to pay close to $50 – the full remaining cost of the improvement – though officials were sure the agreement was to split the cost.

Also, McQuay told the commissioners that a portion of the ceiling above the jury box in the Common Pleas courtroom fell today. A great deal of conversation on those costs – last time this happened, in the Jackson courthouse, the county paid about $30,000 in repairs. Bottom line: county appears responsible for the costs of maintenance and repairs.

10 a.m.

Today commissioners are reviewng budget worksheets, mostly for courts:

Circuit Clerk, Division 1 and 2 (Charles Hutson) has reduced his budget, which in 2008 was $101,000. This year he outlined a $98,000 budget.

Presiding Commissioner Gerald Jones wants to know what 2009’s estimated income is.

“What we’re encouraging people to do is submit zero–based budgets, no increases. Right today our sales tax income is at 99 percent,” he said. “We’re used to sales tax income of about 3.5 percent above the past year and we’re one percent under – a 4.5 difference.”

“We’ve still got four checks to come in and things could change … we’re not going to be real excited about giving anyone increases,” he said.