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Show County Discusses 79 Budget Traditionally, county budget hearings have drawn only a . few residents to the courthouse in Coalville. But Tuesday, over three-dozen people attended a two-hour, two-hour, sometimes heated hearing hear-ing on the proposed 1979 Summit County budget. Countv Clerk Reed Pace opened the meeting by explaining explain-ing the projected expenditures and revenues estimated by the county for the coming year. Pace concluded that the county would be able to fund next year's budget without resorting to higher taxes, leaving leav-ing the property tax mill levy at 9.5. Total expenditures were pegged peg-ged at $2,193,000. with much of the increase from last year's $1,553,000 being earmarked for construction of the new courthouse court-house annex. Increased appropriations were also recommended for the sheriffs department, health services and most administrative administra-tive departments. On the revenue side, the clerk estimated that $823,000 will be raised from property taxes, with nearly half of that amount coming from taxes on or related to oil exploration in the county.. According to Pace, the oil money, estimated ' at near $400,000 next year, would be responsible for the county being able to hold the line on the mill levy. But. even with taxes not projected to go up. much of the discussion at the meeting centered cen-tered around whether the county coun-ty ought to give employees two raises that had been budgeted for the coming year. In December, the countv commission passed a resolution approving an across the board 7 percent raise ,at the first of the year, with an additional 7 percent being paid on a merit basis in July. Commissioner Dale Leavitt. who earlier had voted in favor of both pay raises, said Tuesday Tues-day night he had changed his mind and was now against the July merit increase. Citing President Carter's 7 percent guideline, Leavitt said he feared the "merit increase" would eventually become "an automatic raise." Stating that county employees em-ployees had received a 40 percent pay hike over the last four years. Leavitt concluded: "In my opinion, at the present time, countv employees are being paid well." That statement drew fire from some of those in the audience, many of which were county workers. "The county employees in Summit County are trying to catch up," responded County Assessor Leo Frazer. Pointing to increasing workload work-load and higher salaries paid by other counties, he said: The commission is trying to run the county the way it did fifty years ago." But that provoked Henefer farmer Owne Roberts to observe: ob-serve: "If these people are so damn poorly paid, why don't they quit?" The commissioners took the discussion at the hearing under advisement, and will have to pass on the budget before the first of the year. Since tin salarv increases were passed before Commissioner Commis-sioner Ai.i IJeanlcn rcvi-ncil. it is uniikeiv thai ihev will be taken mi i I i lie I iiilyci . |