GLASGOW —
Effective July 1, the Barren County Child Support Office will be operating with almost $40,000 less in its annual budget than it had in the 2011-12 fiscal year.
Barren County Attorney Jeff Sharp said he received about a month’s notice that the state was cutting Barren County’s budget by $39,840. Kentucky child support offices receive their funding from the Cabinet for Health and Family Services, Department for Income Support. Sharp said there was apparently a $1.1 million budget cut at the state level that disqualified the state for another $2.2 million in federal money, so Kentucky has to make up a $3.3 million shortfall in child support costs in the 2012-13 fiscal year. Barren was one of 47 counties that received a cut as a result.
“I thought we were suffering already,” Sharp said.
While other government agencies increase their budgets each year to account for rising costs, Sharp said the child support office has steadily lost funding since he entered office more than a decade ago.
“When I came into office in 1999, our budget was about $30,000 higher than it is now,” Sharp said.
That year, the Barren County child support budget was $427,000, Sharp said, and this past year it was $398,400. After the cut, the office will have a budget of $358,560 for the next year.
“Everything it takes to run an office comes out of that budget,” Sharp said.
For the full story, read the Weekender print or e-Edition of the Glasgow Daily Times.
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