Lane County officials released their annual budget proposal this week.
The county had to close a $6.3 million dollar gap. To do that - officials could eliminate roughly 80 jobs across a few departments. About 75% of those jobs are vacant positions.
In a news release the county said this was the biggest cut since 2012.
“We have been thoughtful in reducing positions that minimize the effect on residents and our employees,” said Lane County Administrator Steve Mokrohisky. “Wherever possible, we proposed cutting positions that are vacant or where an existing employee could move into another position without being laid off. Only 18 of the positions proposed for reduction are filled.”
The county says this year’s deficit was caused by the same issues impacting many other local governments making cuts, frozen property tax rates paired with rapidly rising costs. The county will finalize the budget over the next few weeks and the county commissioners will adopt it in June.