Following another round of cuts, Lincoln County supervisors saythe budget picture is improving, and they are close to finalizingrevenue and spending plans for the new year.

“It’s looking a whole lot better,” said District 3 SupervisorNolan Earl Williamson following a Wednesday budget meeting. “We’vecut it down as much as we could and still run the county.”

With some new spending items and changes in county government,namely a return to the beat system, officials indicated some kindof tax increase was always a probability. That remained the caseWednesday.

“We’ve worked to cut it just as close as we can,” said District1 Supervisor Cliff Givens said. “We feel for the taxpayers and aretrying to do everything we can to keep taxes as low as we can.”

Totals are not final, but it appears the county is looking ataround a three-mill increase for next year.

One mill is equal to $1 for every $1,000 of assessed propertyvalue, which is usually 10 or 15 percent of a property’s real ormarket value. A three-mill increase means people would be payingabout $3 more for every $1,000 of assessed value.

Wednesday’s draft totals put the county’s overall budget at alittle over $9.9 million. While some numbers still needed to be”massaged” a little, District 4 Supervisor W.D. “Doug” Moak saidthe new year budget is very close to being finalized.

“We’ve done the best we thought we could do,” Moak said.

Supervisors are expected to have a budget ready for publicationat Monday’s board meeting.

County officials arrived at new budget totals after trimminganother 3 percent, or around $130,000, from general fund plans.Before the latest cuts, the general fund budget was approximately$250,000 out of balance.

“We’re still going to be a little short, but it’s a lot betterthan where we started,” Fields said, referring to “wish list”spending plans that had the general fund budget around $650,000 outof balance.

Regarding spending, county officials mentioned new jail-relatedcosts, a library improvement bond issue, reappraisal expenses,costs of redistricting county voting lines and debt service on over$1 million in existing and new equipment needed for the beat systemreturn.

“It just takes more to run the county,” Givens said.

At this point, District 2 Supervisor Bobby J. Watts said thebudget was looking quite well. He indicated the budget was tight,but supervisors could handle the situation.

“We never have enough money,” Watts said. “We just have to learnto spend what we’ve got wisely.”

“Frugal,” “conservative” and maybe even “no” will be words usedduring the upcoming year. Fields said the budget is written closeto actual revenue and expenditure projections and there is not alot of money remaining for new requests.

“We’re just going to have to be very careful on anything thatcomes up this year,” Fields said. “There’s not going to be any newmoney to offset any new expenses during the year.”

To address an expected $124,000 shortfall, County AdministratorTillmon Bishop said officials will make a concentrated effort atcollecting outstanding fines in circuit court and justice court. 2Outstanding circuit court fines total over $3 million, but $1million of that was charged to a convicted drug dealer who is nowin prison. Outstanding justice court fines were originallyestimated at over $2 million, but officials said a calculationerror exaggerated that numbe. The outstanding amount about isactually around $800,000.

Faced with required and other spending, Bishop said he feltconfident the board of supervisors had done the best it could tominimize a millage rate increase and meet county fundingobligations.

“They all want what’s best and right for Lincoln County,” Bishopsaid.