Everything was on the table.

Keith Ascher, County Commissioner, stopped by the KJCK studios Thursday morning to discuss the County’s proposed 2018 budget.

Ascher addressed the $60,000 reduction in funding for ATA bus services in that proposed budget.

“I won’t say we were looking at a certain amount, but everything was on the table,” said Ascher. “When we took office and took our oath, our first [County] Department Head meeting we put out a directive – we want to tow the line, so we need all [your] help to make cuts and do more with less; so they were aware of that early on, that wasn’t a surprise to them.”

Ascher and Charles Stimatze joined Ben Bennett on the County Commission in January after the retirement of Florence Whitebread and Stimatze’s defeat of Larry Hicks.

Ascher noted that all other County departments or County funded agencies submitted budgets with requested decreases.

“As things were coming in and we got ATA bus’ budget, we were looking at all the decreases the other departments were making including some of our outlying agencies and we thought ‘ you know everybody is going to have to pony up here and do more with less’,” said Ascher. “The bottom line is valuations are down, and we didn’t have the money.”

The County’s assessed property valuation is down $2.3 million.

“We knew coming in we had a tax lid to deal with, that was no surprise; but what we weren’t aware of is our valuation we were looking down the barrel of a decrease,” said Ascher. “When you break that down, that’s somewhere between $150,000 and $200,000 actual money that we find cuts and save.”

ATA bus Director Anne Smith noted that the actual impact to services will be much greater because local dollars are leveraged as matching monies for State and Federal Funds.

Ascher noted that all agencies have been asked to do more with less. The County has proposed a 2018 budget with an overall reduction in the property tax levy of 1.64 mils.