Butler County Commissioner Jim Eckstein is proposing several changes to the 2016 county budget — ones he says would lessen the proposed property tax increase.

A few weeks ago, the county proposed a $150.7 million budget with a $61.7 million general fund budget. The budget has a $4.4 million deficit, which is to be plugged up with a 3-mill tax increase and the use of $3.3 million from the county’s operating reserve.

The county tax rate is 24.6 mills. The proposed increase would bump that to 27.6 mills. A mill generates $1 in tax for every $1,000 of a property’s assessed value.

The commissioners are supposed to vote Wednesday on a budget.

At the county meeting Monday, Eckstein made his own proposal that he says would save the county $3.1 million.

Eckstein said he is not in favor of a 3-mill tax increase.

“I’m not for this at all. I don’t think we need it,” he said.

Eckstein claimed that $2 million in Act 13 Marcellus Shale natural gas state impact fees was omitted from the 2016 general fund budget proposal, which he claimed was a bad bookkeeping practice.

Chief clerk Amy Wilson said it is more prudent to keep that gas impact fee money separate from the general fund because it is a special fund that can change from year to year.

Eckstein’s proposal has the impact fee money covering $300,000 for drug, veteran and mental health court programs, $500,000 for a county contingency fund and $900,000 for 911 radio upgrades.

He also said many department salary budgets are overinflated. By reducing the budgeted amount to more realistic numbers, Eckstein said $340,000 extra can be added to the general fund.

Eckstein also proposed adding $500,000 to the general fund from the workers’ compensation fund. With the Sunnyview Nursing and Rehabilitation Center being sold in 2014, the county has about 220 fewer employees.

Additionally, Eckstein wanted to reduce office cleaning, amend travel policies to be more in line with state and federal travel policies and take $100,000 from the prison’s contingency fund for the general fund.

When totaled up, he said the added money placed in the general fund would reduce the tax increase to 1.25 mills.

Commissioner Bill McCarrier, board chairman, said this morning that several items in Eckstein’s proposal are ”simply not correct.” He noted much of his proposal relies on Act 13 money, which the county has not received yet.

Furthermore, McCarrier noted there is no guarantee of the amount of that money or if it will come in — with Gov. Tom Wolf proposing to get rid of impact fees and place a tax on the gas industry.

“You can’t budget funds which you don’t have,” McCarrier said.

Additionally, McCarrier said Eckstein is proposing uses for impact fee money that are not legal. For example, he said using $500,000 for a contingency fund is not one of the allowable uses for that money.

He also said that office cleaning has already been reduced. McCarrier said that money from the prison fund has been used for a few prison projects this year so it likely is best to keep that money as is.

McCarrier added that salary budgets have been reduced to a reasonable level this year.

As far as taking money from the workers’ compensation fund, McCarrier said the state has control over that. He said the county has asked if it can remove money from there now that Sunnyview has been privatized, but has not received an answer from the state.

Controller Ben Holland said Eckstein has some good ideas, but his proposal relies too much on one-time revenue sources.

He said at some point in the future the amount of state gas impact fee money the county gets will decrease.

Holland said he would rather see that money used to pay for one-time projects or to pay off debt, saying it is proper to keep that money in a separate fund out of the general fund.

Holland said he would not remove $500,000 from the workers’ compensation fund, at least not without an actuarial study first. He also said the county’s travel fund is among the least abused funds in the county.

One aspect he agreed with was Eckstein’s proposal to decrease the amounts budgeted for salaries, saying he too believes that salary amounts are overinflated.

He said Eckstein’s proposal is not perfect, but he said he is pleased that Eckstein is asking questions about the budget.

“I wish the other two (commissioners) would ask the same questions,” Holland said.

Eckstein further claimed the 3.9 mills dedicated for debt service is not accurate.

He said that during the past 10 years, some of that money — totaling about 1.4 mills — has been used for general fund purposes. He said he plans to take this issue to the state auditor general.

Holland said he did a study and discovered that, of the $59.8 million the debt service tax has brought in, only $52.9 million has been spent.

The remaining $6.8 million was used for general fund items, he said.

As far as he has been told, Holland said this is legal as long as the total amount of money going to the general fund does not exceed 25 mills. However, just because it is legal does not mean it is right, he said.

Wilson said she is working with Holland on the debt service millage issue, and said it is likely that a different millage rate for debt service will be proposed on Wednesday.