The DeWitt County Board's special budget session on Tuesday night exposed a large budget gap for the county.

A special meeting was called after Board Chair Sherrie Brown called for five percent cuts across the board, however, the move came under much scrutiny, most notably from DeWitt County Sheriff Jered Shofner. Administrative Assistant Dee Dee Rentmeister says projections are based on estimates at this point.

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The projected 2015 revenue is $5,210,605 which is the expected cash available as of December 1st of this year. According to Board member David Newberg, the projected revenue is over three million dollars less than last year's.

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The lowest possible projected expenses for 2015 came to just short of $6.5-million, which creates a $1.3 million difference for next year's budget. Newberg says every department would need to be cut by twenty-percent to balance this budget.

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The discussion lasted nearly three hours with several county department heads discussing their respective budgets. The Board set up another meeting for absent department heads to attend Monday night at 6pm.

Listen to the majority of Tuesday's meeting below:

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[audio:918142015budget51.mp3] [/audio]