The proposed budget (general fund) for Beaufort County that was posted Friday afternoon would have kept the property-tax rate at 53 cents per $100 valuation.

But a higher budget was presented to the Beaufort County Board of Commissioners when it met Monday for the first in a series of budget sessions.

The proposed 2015-2016 fiscal year budget posted on the county’s website Friday afternoon showed the general fund appropriations at $57.9 million, but by 5 p.m. Monday when the commissioners began their budget works session that budget at increased to $60.45 million. The $2.5 million increase reflects changes interim County Manager Kenneth N. Windley Jr. and Finance Officer Mark Newsome made after consulting with each other earlier Monday. Those changes include correcting some errors.

Some commissioners questioned how the proposed budget could increase that much over the weekend.

“I want to start out by saying this has been a very difficult budget because we’ve had to change over the format and start the staff working on a fresh, independent, kind of clearer format … so people can understand the budget better, but it has taken awhile to get going this year with this new format. I appreciate your patience with it,” Windley said. “I also found out that everybody found out the county had some additional unappropriated fund balance this year and that everybody wanted to make up for the last seven years of tight budgets in one year. So, that’s certainly not possible, so we have made a number of cuts —and actually we made a number of cuts today (Monday).”

Because of the new format, Windley said, he and Newsome didn’t have a chance to meet “face to face” and review the budget department by department until Monday.

“To give you a little bit of context on the fund balance appropriations, I’ve got one other schedule that gives you a list of all the capital and nonrecurring costs. This budget, as it’s recommended by the manager, does dip in the fund balance rather significantly, not as a percentage, but as a dollar amount,” Newsome said.

That amount comes to $5,227,895, which includes an allocation of $897,000 for the county’s revaluation reserve.

The commissioner reviewed several departments’ budgets, making some reductions and increasing other budgets. The board removed $200,000 from the budget. That money was earmarked to buy land near the proposed Wright’s Creek boat ramp near Pamlico Beach. Grant money is being used to buy the land needed for the boat ramp.

The board determined the approximately 12 acres are unsuitable for development. The proposed spending plan calls for four deputy sheriffs to provide courthouse security. It also calls for a new position, an information technology person who would repair computers and train county employees how to use hardware and software.

“While no additional staffing is recommended at this time for the Sheriff’s office beyond courthouse security, there are vehicle, equipment and training needs that can be addressed. For example, it appears that if no vehicles are replaced this year, next year there may be as many as 15 vehicles that will have 170,000-200,000 miles. These vehicles should be replaced during the year before they reach 170,000 miles. These worn out vehicles can become a huge liability and can hinder recruiting replacements on the staff,” reads Windley’s budget message.

A public hearing on the proposed budget will be conducted later.

The board was scheduled to meet in another budget session Tuesday night. For additional coverage of the board’s budget sessions, see future editions of the Washington Daily News.