MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (WBOY) — The Monongalia County budget will be set lower than the previous fiscal year heading into 2024 with the total being decreased by around 10 percent compared to last year’s budget.

Commissioner Sean Sikora says this is due to reductions in spending and a few capital outlay projects that wrapped up, like the Mon County Center and more. “So, there’s reasons why all those numbers kind of shrunk a little bit,” Sikora said. “Basically our budgets are pretty tight in comparison to where they were in previous years and we’re just going to monitor and try to keep budgeted costs, projected costs where they actually need to be.”

Sikora also mentioned that historically there is a slight buffer in funds that groups don’t spend.

“We’re trying to get the budgets to be as realistic as possible,” Sikora said.

While the county’s base levy rate has fallen over the past few years, the commission kept the levy rate the same.

“In 2019 and 2022 there were some anomalies about the budget so this year we want to be cautious and see where we are,” Sikora said. “We’ve mostly kept the costs flat while still increasing services while inside that cost.”

This year, the commission received 58 grant requests, which is an 85% increase from the past according to Sikora.

“A couple of them are still in limbo that we will have to make decisions,” Sikora said. “55 of those we were actually able to give them something.”

To view Monongalia County’s budget, click here.