Lawrence County Council Cuts Police Car, Copier, And More From This Year’s Budget

(BEDFORD) – In a final budget hearing Tuesday night, Lawrence County Council members made a few cuts to the budget requests from officeholders.

The revenue for 2021 and 2022 is expected to have some revenue shortfalls and the Lawrence County Council wanted to plan accordingly.

The budget was proposed at $14.8 million for 2021 with the latest cuts making it a little lower.

Lawrence County Sheriff Mike Branham will only be able to purchase two police cars next year. His original proposal was to purchase three using some of the public safety funds.

The Lawrence County Council also took a knife to the Prosecutor’s Office budget. The council cut the overtime request and a position request was also cut from the 2021 budget.

All scale wage changes for all officeholders were eliminated from the budget, which included the Surveyor and three positions in scale wage changes in the Health Department’s budget.

The Lawrence County Superior Court request for a new copier was also cut from this year’s budget.

“In the end, the budget process this year was smooth. All department heads worked very well in trying to make sure the budget remained around the same as last year,” said David Flinn, President of the Lawrence County Council.

The adoption of the budget for 2021 will be held on next Tuesday, September 22, 2020.