The Monroe County Council approved its its 2021 budget Tuesday night.
Council president Eric Spoonmore said this year’s budget process was especially challenging due to the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
“We wanted to make sure that we could shore up as much funding as possible to be able to prepare for future years," Spoonmore said. "And I think this budget reflects a lot of work and effort, preparing for a lot of uncertainty that we still don’t know about.”
One way the council prepared for the unexpected was by allocating $3 million into the county’s rainy day fund as a financial safety net.
"These are incredible times," Spoonmore said. "There's a lot of things about this budget that I'm very proud of."
Another key budgetary decision was to add a new position for a Financial Manager within the Monroe County Health Department.
READ MORE: Monroe Co. Health Dept. Requests Funding For Three New Positions
Councilmember Pete Iversen said the county needs to be doing everything it can to give the health department as many resources as possible at this time.
“I think this is going to be something that’s just going to be amazing for our health department to ensure that they’re going to be able to keep the grant dollars rolling in," Iversen said. "And to be able to ever expand those because quite frankly, this is not the last pandemic that’s going to hit us.”
In the coming months, the council will also consider adding two more positions to the health department: an Environment Coordinator and an Epidemiology Coordinator. The positions would assist the county during the coronavirus pandemic.
Next year's budget will also include a salary bump for the three Monroe County Commissioners: Julie Thomas, Penny Githens and Lee Jones.
READ MORE: Monroe County Approves Motion To Raise Commissioners Pay $10K
The commissioners currently earn an annual salary of about $35,000, which will increase to $46,000 in 2021.
For the latest news and resources about COVID-19, bookmark our Coronavirus In Indiana page here .
