Highland County’s operating budget is set to increase for 2018. County Commissioner Shane Wilkin says it's an increase of roughly $500,000.
"Our General Fund budget number was 10.3-million this year," said Wilkin. "That is up from 9.8-million last year, a little over 9.8."
Wilkin says when he first came into office years ago the county budget was $10.8 million, but dropped as low as $8.3 million during the recession.
He says the 2018 increase is accompanied by good news for the county's various departments."Nobody's budget went backwards," said Wilkin. "They may not have received the increases they asked for, but not a single department took a budget cut."
One area the county is getting hit hard with, is an $800,000 loss in state Medicaid funding for certain programs.