Daviess County Fiscal Court approved slightly increased budgets for the County Clerk and Sheriff’s office for 2024 on Tuesday.
The new DCSO budget totals $6,857,829.55 — an increase of about $212,000. The increase is a result of the 3% cost of living adjustment, county officials said.
Unlike the County Clerk’s office, DCSO’s benefits from a subsidy totaling $3,035,627.01 for 2024 — an amount less than the prior year according to County Treasurer Jordan Johnson.
“[This is] due to the offset of the Sheriff’s budget surplus, which is in the amount of $815,652.55, which is the result of overperforming revenues, reduced expenses from positions that were not filled for the entirety of the calendar year, and otherwise efficient operations,” Johnson said.
Sheriff Brad Youngman said that the office does apply for grants to offset some of the allocations from the Fiscal Court. In 2023, Youngman said they reported raising “well over $200,000” in grants. Part of the revenue came in from Homeland Security grants for their digital forensics unit.
“We will fully recognize the burden we put on taxpayers by asking for money from the Fiscal Court, but we try to offset that with grants as much as we can. I do have my eye on several grants to go for this next year,” Youngman said.
He said that the newly approved budget will help DCSO in completing new projects including body-worn cameras.
“This is a huge step forward for both the citizens of our county, whom we are accountable to, as well as the deputies that serve and protect them,” Youngman said.
The County Clerk’s budget totals $2,503,444 — an increase of almost $131,000 from 2023. Their increase similarly results from a 3% cost of living adjustment.
Even though this is an election year, County Clerk Leslie McCarty said the increase does not account for any election-related fees.
“Even though we get the bill, we tell [Fiscal Court] exactly how much we think we need in elections and how much an election costs. That actually comes out of Fiscal Court’s budget because that’s a [state] statute,” McCarty said.
Both budgets were passed unanimously by Fiscal Court.
