BELFAST – The Waldo County commissioners and budget committee have approved a $6.8 million budget for the coming year that retains employee benefit programs at their current level.

Commissioners’ Chairman John Hyk said the budget won approval after a three-hour hearing Friday during which an additional $70,000 was pared from the proposed budget.

The final budget for the coming year is $6,793,171.67.

“With this budget we will continue to provide the kind of services the public expects,” Hyk said Sunday. “I think we can move ahead smartly. You don’t get everything you want, but you get what you need to make the county go.”

The budget includes a 3.8 percent pay raise for county employees along with their health insurance package. The county will spend $1,353,150 on employee benefits next year, an increase of 3.8 percent over 2006.

Hyk said the commissioners would look for ways to reduce that impact when they begin work on their budget for the following year.

“Every problem is an opportunity and I look forward toward solving the problems,” he said.

The county pays full health coverage for all employees and their families hired before 2003. Those hired after that date receive full benefits for themselves but must contribute 34 percent of the premium if their families are included. He said a number of employees attended the budget hearing.

“It’s important that the people that do these jobs have a certain amount of pride,” he said. “All of our county employees do a good job and that reflects on their customers, the taxpayers.”

Hyk said the additional cuts came from numerous accounts, including the travel budget and $5,000 to hire a grant writer. He said the committee also cut $200,000 the commissioners recommended be set aside as a reserve account for new buildings.

He said he was disappointed over that decision because the county learned the hard way in prior years how difficult it is to respond to needs when there are no reserves in place.

“This board of commissioners has tried to put money aside for future needs,” Hyk said. “If the taxpayers don’t want to put aside money, you lose out when the time comes when you need money. Every county building is chock-a-block full but the budget committee did not want to set money aside for the future.”

Along with employee benefits, the cost of running the sheriff’s department, county jail and dispatch center make up the bulk of the budget.

The county will spend $1,988,311 to run the jail next year, an increase of 16.9 percent, $1,000,333, on the sheriff’s department, an increase of 1.89 percent and $650,436 on the communications center, an increase of .9 percent.

“This is not like it was many years ago when you called the sheriff and nobody came,” Hyk said. “The dispatch, sheriff and jail are essential services and they suck up a lot of money. That’s just the way it is.”