By COLE REIF
Great Bend Post
Discussions and planning are underway with Barton County officials as
they try to figure out the 2023 operating budget. On an interview with Eagle Radio earlier this month, Commissioner Kirby Krier
stated the county plans to stay Revenue Neutral, but he is hopeful the
mill rate can slightly come down.
One of the factors into this year’s budget will be the ability to give county
employees pay raises.
"We all know about the difficulty of employers finding employees," said Krier. "We want to keep the ones we have because they do an excellent job. We're looking at ways we can afford to give them a pay raise."
Keeping the taxpayers in mind, Krier said the county has to be careful with
giving raises because taxpayers are in the same boat, having to pay more to
keep their employees.
"We are looking at different avenues to help employees find that this a good place to stay," said Krier. "We have great benefits. I don't want to compete against the private sector. I want to be somewhere in the middle. Those are our taxpayers, so we don't want to compete against them."
Barton County’s 44.361 mill levy last year was a near two mill decrease from
the year prior. The budget was not approved until late August last year.