The Board of Supervisors reviewed the proposed 2019-2020 budget for the county’s general fund during their Board meeting Wednesday.

Total revenue is estimated at $17.7 million and total expenses are estimated at $18.3 million, so the Board will need to find additional revenue or cut expenses to balance the proposed budget.

In the proposed budget for the next fiscal year, the budget for mental health increases by $134,000—from $98,000 in the 2018 to 2019 fiscal year to $232,000 in the 2019 to 2020 fiscal year.

County Administrator Adrain Lumpkin said the county has been paying approximately $135,000 for the crisis stabilization unit out of the lunacy court budget, and he has moved that expense to the mental health budget for the next fiscal year.

The lunacy court budget decreased by $129,000—from $209,000 in the current fiscal year to $80,000 in the upcoming fiscal year.

The budget for election costs increased in the proposed budget from $235,000 in the 2018-19 fiscal year, to $300,000 in the next year because of the new voting machines, said Lumpkin.

County extension is proposed to increase from $100,000 to $125,000 because their office is replacing a part time employee with a full time employee, said Lumpkin.

No money was budgeted for the Main Street congregate feeding program through SMPDD in the current fiscal year, but there is $22,000 budgeted for it in the 2019-2020 fiscal year.

The proposed budgets for the library, the tax collector, the senior center, the district attorney’s office, county attorney’s office, public defender’s office and E911 increased by a total of $99,000.

In the preliminary budget, there are no proposed increases to the budgets for the Board of Supervisors, the Chancery Clerk, the Circuit Clerk, the jail, or the health department.

The proposed budgets for sanitation, the Sheriff’s Office legal department and the planning department together decreased by $50,000.

The Board will hold a public hearing for adopting the 2019-2020 budget on September 10 at 10 a.m.