Commissioners pass final Cape County budget for 2025

The Cape Girardeau County government has a budget for the next fiscal year. County commissioners approved it during their Monday, Jan. 13, meeting.

County Auditor Pete Frazier presented the budget to the commissioners for approval. He had given them a preliminary budget at their Dec. 19 meeting with income estimates for the last few weeks of 2024.

The actual balance at the end of 2024 was just under $5.1 million, slightly less than Frazier’s December estimate of $5.4 million. He revised his unencumbered 2025 balance from $2.93 million to $2.43 million, which he said was still a healthy amount.

“There’s always an unknown for me. What I try to do is … an average of the previous years’ expenditures for the last three years. One of those years was really low, so that brought that average down,” Frazier said.

Adding together all revenue from sales tax and other sources leaves the county with $13.57 million in revenue. This is around $1.2 million less than 2024’s revenue.

The budgeted appropriation for the county in 2025 is $11.2 million that various offices are approved to spend. The sheriff’s office was allotted $17.94 to spend. Some $6.34 million is budgeted for road and bridge use and another $1.35 million for assessment purposes.

During their meeting, the commissioners also approved bidding for vehicles. The county’s Parks Department, as well as the Building and Grounds division of the Public Works Department, would use them. Funds for the new vehicles were part of the newly approved budget.