Cameron County is looking for ways to finish off the fiscal year with a balanced budget even if that means pay cuts for county employees.
“We are going through a budget process,” said Cameron County Judge Carlos Cascos. “We’re no different than any other budget shortfall."
Cameron County is projected to be 4.7 million dollars short from balancing their annual budget.
It’s a problem that the county judge points out doesn’t necessarily mean they're in the red.
Instead he told Action 4 News the money coming into the county is simply projected to be less than what's needed to maintain it and that does pose a threat of putting them in the whole.
But before that happens, Cascos said, “I’m prepared to do what we need to do…I know what we need to do…I’ve already had numerous recommendations as to how to balance the budget."
One of those recommendations could mean taking money from the largest piece of the budget pie.
“Our biggest expenditure is personnel and I would much rather, if we go down that path, I would much rather everybody take a small cut than having to lay off a bunch of people."
But before talking pay cuts Cascos explained he and the county commissioners will have to look at several different initiatives before acting on one of them.
According to projections from the county's proposed budget the total revenue will be a little more than 62 million dollars while total expenditures will be at around 70 million.
Although there are many questions on should be done, Cascos said he won’t raise taxes.
“You either raise taxes which I’m not prepared to do or cut expenses which I am prepared to do."
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