Even though the budget for FY 2017 remains on the table, it doesn’t mean taxes aren’t due.

again used her power over the amendment. This left the situation back where it began when the commission first voted in June on the budget.

A second amendment was then brought up by Jason Ward, which required additional discussion.

Ward’s plan called for the additional raise to be paid for with the reduction in salary of the assistant county manager position and the administrative assistant to the tune of $32,500 for the former, and $15,000 to the latter.

An additional increase in pro- posed revenue for ad valorem taxes from $7.4 million to $7,440,000 and an increase in motor vehicle revenue from $1,107,000 to $1,142,144 to meet the financial needs for the additional step raise.

“We’re obviously in disagreement moving forward on whether or not we need an assistant county manager,” Ward said. “I think you’ve (Barber, Hulsey and Tillery) made it clear that you don’t want to hire an assistant county manager… I’m reasonably confident for the next six months that the salary for assistant county manager is not going be used. So my intent is to take half of the salary to pay for this, and the administrative assistant, the same logic.”

Ward added that since commissioners had previously voted against using fund balance to pay for the raises, so he dug through the budget to find money to pay for them instead.

So by taking in slightly more of the tax revenue from ad valorem and motor vehicle taxes into the budget, and by cutting the salaries of the positions, he said he found the money needed to fund pay raises to the level the three were hoping to get by eliminating the positions outright.

“I get that we disagree on this issue,” Ward said. “But why not take care of the employees, and work out among ourselves whether we’ll ever have an assistant county manager again.”

Though Hulsey and Tillery both said they were thankful for the work Ward did to find the money, took issue with leaving six months of salary in place for both positions.

“Why don’t we vote, with the money we have available to us and not have to do something like this, and if there’s something in the future and we see whether it works out with Matt and the department heads, we can