Wexford County commissioners will have to fill a $700,000 budget shortfall.
WEXFORD COUNTY -- Wexford County leaders now have to figure out how to make up for a budget shortfall after voters shot down their request to increase taxes.
On the May ballot, Wexford County voters were asked to increase an operating tax levy by a little over .5 mills to make up for falling property values.
Property owners with a taxable value of $100,000 would have paid another $52 a year, something voters just weren't willing to do.
Wexford County Commissioner Gideon Mitchell says, "I wasn't really surprised. I wanted voters to vote. I didn't want us to start cutting budgets without knowing first if this would pass or not."
Now the county is left with a $700,000 gap to fill for the upcoming budget year.
Wexford County Administrator, Ken Hinton says, "County employees already made a lot of cuts. The county has taken a lot of cost saving measures so the only logical thing left to do is to start cutting services."
County leaders say non-mandated services like MSU Extension are at risk, along with road patrol deputies, and courts.
Mitchell says, "We're going to look at everything. We are goin to keep our minds open and look at the big picture."
