Dodge County Officials Review Department Budgets In Committee

(Juneau) It is budget time for Dodge County officials. County department heads presented an overview of their 2018 budget plan to the Finance Committee Thursday night. Land Resources and Parks, UW-Extension, Information Technology and Highway – which saw a $100-thousand dollar decrease from last year’s budget – were a few of the departments that spoke. Also presenting was the Dodge County Sheriff’s Office which is seeing an increase of $2.2-million dollars from last year’s budget. Sheriff Dale Schmidt says the closing of the old jail has had an impact on revenues due to the loss of contract beds from Immigration and Customs Enforcement and US Marshalls. He says as a result, significant cuts to various services and equipment purchases were made. Schmidt says they removed the purchase of 14 handguns from the budget, reduced the replacement of their Taser’s from 16 down to eight, cut out the purchase of one laser speed detector as well as other items such as SWAT Equipment, training, office supplies, vehicle equipment, patrol and jail equipment. The $112-million dollar document calls for a tax levy of $34-million which would be an increase of roughly $193-thousand dollars from last year. The proposed mill rate of $5.40 per one thousand dollars of assed value would be a 10-cent decrease from the number home owners saw last year. Final budget adoption is slated for November.