By JONATHAN ZWEYGARDT
Hays Post

The Ellis County Commission once again will meet this week with department heads in an effort to balance the 2015 budget.

According to Ellis County Administrator Greg Sund, at Monday’s special meeting, the group trimmed the budget shortfall to $1,150,375.

The previous gap was approximately $1.5 million.

Sund said in his meeting memo to commissioners that they are closer but, “we still have a lot of ground to make up.”

After Monday’s meeting, the commission decided to cut a percentage of costs related to hiring four jailers for 2015. Sheriff Ed Harbin said because they will not be in to new jail for much of next year, they will not need to budget all year for the new staff.

Sund also said in his memo that real estate taxes are probably going up. He said personal property and oil and gas tax bases will likely see reductions, which will shift the burden to real estate taxes.

Friday’s meeting will be at 1:30 p.m. at the 601 Main meeting room.