Supervisors disagree on why it happened

By By Steve Gillespie / staff writer
Sept. 17, 2003
Most Lauderdale County supervisors were pleased with the budget that was passed Monday. District 5 Supervisor Ray Boswell was the only dissenting vote.
District 3 Supervisor Craig Hitt, board president, said last month supervisors intended to meet with department heads about the budget. But, on Monday, he said that when he mentioned it to fellow board members, none of them were interested in meeting with department heads.
Boswell disagreed with Hitt's explanation today.
Boswell said he is in favor of the board setting aside a lump sum for each department and letting the department heads make their own cuts in their budgets.
Boswell voted against the budget because it includes a slight tax increase. On Monday, and again today, he criticized fellow supervisors for the tax increase and for passing the budget immediately after the public hearing.
District 4 Supervisor Joe Norwood also disagreed with Hitt's assessment.
Norwood said that once supervisors saw how much growth in taxes the county had, supervisors determined they would basically keep each department's budget at last year's funding level.