The Putnam County Budget Committee approved charitable donations and funding for non-profits in next year’s budget, but not without pushback from some committee members.
The non-profit funding request totaled some $97,100. Commissioner Vinnie Faccinto made the motion to postpone approval until after a decision was made on employee raises. Faccinto said he did not feel right donating money the county does not have, especially if it could lead to tax increases.
“All of these organizations can get money from our constituents if they donate directly,” Faccunto said. “And I don’t see that as something we need to be doing if we feel like we don’t have the money to take care of our employees and some of the other things.”
Faccento’s motion failed on a 5-4 vote. Commissioner Chris Cassetty said he agreed that employee raises and county business should take priority. but the county is not in a place where one has to be cut.
“If we’re cutting our employees, if we’re taking money away from our employees, I agree with you that we don’t need to fund [nonprofits],” Cassety said. “But at what point have we talked about cutting employees? To this point, all we’ve talked about is are we giving them more than the step raises. Your point is very valid, but we’re a long way from there.”
County Executive Randy Porter said there is a three-person committee who decides which nonprofits to fund. Porter said the committee received requests totaling some $267,100, and worked hard to cut down to the final recommendation.
“They put a lot of time into that, and it takes it off of [the Budget Committee],” Porter said. “What we found out is, if y’all had to listen to all of those non-profits, you’d be spending more time on it than on the county budget.”
Last year, Putnam County funded nonprofits in the amount of some $89,000.