ASHLAND — County commissioners approved a $19.7 million spending plan for 2025 at Thursday’s meeting.
That figure represents a 5.9-percent increase from the commissioners’ budget of the previous year.
Last December, commissioners approved an $18.6 million budget for 2024. That budget marked a 7.2-percent increase over 2023 projections, which commissioners attributed to a few areas:
- A “capital-case fees” line item, which remains on the county’s budget for 2025.
- Wage increases in the coroner’s office, sheriff’s office and veteran service office.
- Insurance costs.
This year, Commissioner Denny Bittle simply attributed the increase to inflation.
General insurance has the largest projected budget of all the county’s departments, with a total cost of $3,066,250. That’s up about 15 percent from 2024’s budget. Last year, commissioners set aside about $2.7 million for general insurance costs.
The 2025 budget also includes a new category that wasn’t reflected on appropriations from 2024. Commissioners set aside $90,145 for “Sheriff — dog warden.”
The Ashland County sheriff’s department received about $60,000 less in this year’s appropriations than it did last year.
The position of dog warden was taken over by sheriff’s deputy Curtis Hall in July. His appointment came after the previous warden, Joe Eggerton, resigned from the position in May.
The $90,145 figure in this year’s appropriations has $66,800 set aside for employee wages, along with funding for Medicare, clothing allowance, supplies and equipment.
Overall, including funds and agencies outside the general fund, county commissioners approved a $164,065,367.73 budget. That’s an increase of around $9 million from the budget commissioners approved for 2024.
