The Hardin County Fiscal Court met for their first meeting of the month Tuesday.
The court approved the first reading of the 2026-2027 county budget. The approved budget was amended from the budget proposed by Hardin County Judge/Executive Keith Taul following Finance Committee meetings last week, with total revenues and expenditures of $60,827,299. Taul said the amended budget cut $870,000 from his proposed budget.
Fourth District Magistrate Fred Clem said the two major issues several of the magistrates had with Taul’s budget were salaries and the proposed emergency services building to be constructed in Glendale. Clem said the magistrates want to take care of county employees but financial constraints have to be considered.
“Measured growth and salaries is part of our budget process, and every employee, and I want to be clear, even though they weren’t as substantial as the judge presented in his budget, every employee did get a one percent COLA and every employee did get a one-step raise, so no one was left out of the process of raises and COLAs,” Clem said.
Fifth District Magistrate Aaron Pennington said he was not against the emergency services building, but he wanted to see more details, and more financial planning, for such a large-scale project.
“This is not a no,” Pennington said. “This is ‘how much does it cost, and where are we going to get the money to pay for it?’ Again, I would probably be all for it, and not once at any Emergency Services Committee have I said, ‘Nope, we’re not for it.’ I’ve always said, “Yeah, but let’s figure it out. How are we going to pay for it?’”
Taul, who along with Seventh District Magistrate Larry Hicks voted against the amended budget, said the focus of his budget was public safety and “fair wage adjustments” to retain employees. He said the cuts made to the budget will prove to be detrimental to the county.
“I guarantee it’s going to be a reduction in quality of services,” Taul said. “It will be a reduction. We have high turnover, and the continuous cost of training of new employees, lack of support to fire services, and the improvement objectives, future objectives that we have out there for those fire services, are all being compromised.”
The budget will go up for adoption on its second reading at the June 9 fiscal court meeting.
In other meeting news, a public hearing was held on County Road Aid and Local Government Economic Assistance funds. County Attorney Jenny Oldham said the county is expected to receive $1,872,330.42 in CRA funds and $284,400 in LGEA funds.
County Planning Director Adam King said year-to-date the county has platted 64 new lots this year and approved 170 building permits. County Public Works Director Stephanie Givens said 25 trailer runs were made for the county’s recycling program in March, and more than 150 shredding bags were collected in March and April.
The Hardin County Fiscal Court will next meet May 26.
