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CASSOPOLIS — Cass County Commissioners approved a new budget Tuesday at a special county board meeting but it wasn’t unanimously supported by commissioners or the public. The new budget is for the 2025 fiscal year that starts Oct. 1.

The new budget is a balanced one, thanks to the use of $1.566 million from the county’s fund balance of $6.8 million. Cass County Administrator Matthew Newton noted last week that the budget had initially had a deficit of over $3 million before adjustments were made after commissioners requested in late August that the deficit be reduced.

The vote to approve the budget was 5-3. Voting yes were Sam Barrera, Jeremiah Jones, James Lawrence, RJ Lee and Joyce Locke. Voting no were Mary Howie, Ryan Laylin and Roseann Marchetti.

The budget approval vote came after commissioners deadlocked 4-4 on a motion to amend the budget to take out an administrative assistant position in the county administration department. The vote there had Barrera, Howie, Lawrence and Lee voting to amend the budget and Jones, Laylin, Locke and Marchetti voting no.

Those wanting to amend the budget to not include the position-which costs $50,000 taken from the administration and finance departments-primarily because other departments weren’t allowed to add positions or hire new people. They added that someone shouldn’t be hired for that position until a classification and compensation study is done later this year.

The argument on the other side was that the position isn’t new, it just hasn’t been filled recently. Newton added that having an administrative assistant for his department to do routine work and answer public questions will free the existing staff including himself to do other tasks.

One of those questioning having the administrative assistant position funded in the new budget was Sheriff Richard Behnke.

“I heard of the new position for the administrator office and I found that surprising,” he said. “During budget meetings, we were told to find ways to cut services, combine services or make our operations more efficient so we don’t need to have as many people.”

“We were told not to ask for more people because there wasn’t the money to do that,” he added. “We were told that the county clerk is in need of someone to help with elections and that the county treasurer is taking on additional responsibilities that are not part of her statutory duties … Then I found out that the rules were changed for one office, that’s disappointing.”

Behnke said that Barrera made a good point to wait to add the position until after the compensation study is done. 

“Then there would be more information about the needs for that position,” he said. “A lot of us didn’t put in for anything extra because we were told the money wasn’t there.”

Resident Lynn Schantz had a more general concern. She said she had attended the budget discussion at last week’s Committee of the Whole meeting and heard talk about funds being moved around and drug enforcement millage funds being used to fund a new prosecutor position and a new sheriff’s deputy position.

“I want to know how much has been used and where it was put,” she said. “Was it used for law enforcement or did it go somewhere else in the budget? I want a transparent board and transparent commissioners.”

The action on the budget came after months of work by county staff to develop it. Newton said at last week’s Committee of the Whole meeting that work on the budget starts in the spring as he and department heads project staffing needs. 

“There is a lot of effort, blood, sweat and tears that go into the process,” he said.

County Board Chairman Jeremiah Jones said last week that he wants to see commissioners focus more on the budget throughout the year. 

“It’s a good point to see where we’re at throughout the year,” he said. “So if others come asking for money, we’d have a better idea of how much money we have.”

“This year we kept saying yes you can have this or yes you can have that and now we had a $3 million deficit and we never talked about this,” he added. “People have asked how did this happen. As long as I’m chair, every committee of the whole meeting will have a discussion on the budget.”